How to Grow and Care for Witch hazels

Witch hazel was used quite commonly in the 20th century for locating water sources. The practice, called dowsing or water witching, is still occasionally used. In dowsing, a forked stick of witch hazel is held perpendicular to the ground and moved slowly over it. The belief is that when a water source is directly under the stick, it will dip or jump.

The most aromatic of the witch hazels, the chinese witch hazel, is grown as an ornamental plant for shrub borders or forest gardens. This fragrant shrub has rounded leaves and flowers that resemble golden yellow spiders and is praised for its fragrance.

The ozark witchhazel is a deciduous shrub most often found around the Ozark Plateau. This shrub blooms during late winter and early spring if given full sun or partial shade. The Greek roots of its scientific name, Hamamelis vernalis, reference the fact that both the flowers and fruits develop simultaneously.

Chinese witch hazel comes in a variety of colors and sizes. Chinese witch hazel 'Brevipetala' is a yellow-flowered cultivar of this species that has very short petals. In fact, "brevipetal" means 'short petals' in Italian. This cultivar is also shorter and more compact than its parent species, growing and spreading to 3 to 3.5 m instead of 4.5 m.

Japanese witch-hazel 'Aphrodite' is a witch hazel that stands out from the rest because of the unusual and attractive orange-red flowers, which have helped it achieve the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Named after the Greek goddess of love, this hybrid is a cross between Japanese and Chinese witch hazels.