Witch Hazel ( Hamamelis )

It's looking like a lovely Sunday, the sun is out.. well hopefully for a little while at least!

This is my Witch Hazel tree, a hamamelis mollis. I have had it in my garden for many years, and it moved with us to our current house.

It's a lovely yellow color in autumn, usually covered in the webs of little flying spiders.

Here it is just a few weeks ago, covered in white frost.

Earlier this month, the oddly shaped yellow flowers started emerging. This is its 3rd season of flowering in this garden. It does very well here, much better than our old house!

The flowers have a lovely and strong scent. I first remember smelling the scent of one long ago. I would walk past this type of tree in the winter months on the way to work, but never saw it. It grew behind a huge wall that i couldn't see over. But then I saw one in a botanical garden in winter, and knew it was the same type of tree. And such pretty flowers!

Of course, I had to get one for myself! But it never did well at the old house, not sure why. It would only grow a handful of flowers.

But here at our house in the country, it grows fantastically. Maybe it likes the boggy soil.

I love this little tree, It calls to me during the cold months, to come outside and take in its wonderful perfume, admire its pretty spidery blooms.

I'll be submitting this post to the Festival of Trees. You can join in too!
It will be the Festival of the Trees 9, to be hosted by Kelly Schmitt Youngberg at Ginkgo Dreams.
Send your tree, forest, and wood related blog posts, be they silly, philosophical, scientific, or whimsical, to: kelly [at] ginkgodreams [dot] com