# Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

> The last flower of the year: ribbon-like yellow blooms in November as the golden leaves fall.

Also called common witch-hazel, American witch-hazel. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/witch-hazel/

![Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) yellow ribbon-like flowers among fall leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/witch-hazel-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: BotBln, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hamamelis_virginiana_FlowersLeaves_BotGardBln0906.JPG)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 12 to 20 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 8
- Grows wild in: The forest understory, rich moist slopes and stream banks
- Native range: 33 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC))
- Sun: Part, Shade, Full
- Soil moisture: Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: October to December
- Fruit: Capsules, September to October
- First crop: At least 6 years (first flowers)
- Mature spread: 20 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Fall color, Wildlife value, Tolerates shade, Winter interest
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Shade Understory Pack.

## Notes

Native witch hazel blooms in late autumn, sometimes into December, and its seed capsules fire seeds up to 30 feet the following fall. It is a large, vase-shaped shrub or small tree of moist woods, fine in deep shade, with dependable yellow fall color. The source of witch hazel extract. After the leaves drop, the yellow flowers stay on the bare twigs into early winter. Good for an understory screen under maples, or beside a path you still walk in November.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Witch hazel flowers in late fall, from October into December, with fragrant yellow blooms of four crinkled, ribbon-like petals a half to three quarters of an inch long. It grows at a medium pace, roughly a foot and a half a year in its youth on an average site, which is the rate our growth estimator uses for it. Plan on a dense, multi-stemmed clump 12 to 20 feet tall and 15 to 20 feet wide, though wild plants commonly run 15 to 25 feet. Seedlings do not flower until they are at least 6 years old.

The woody capsules ripen the next fall and burst to fling two shiny black seeds 10 to 20 feet, rarely 40. Grouse, bobwhite, pheasant and turkeys eat the seed, and deer browse the leaves. The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon wych, to bend, because settlers cut dowsing rods from its forked branches.

It grows wild from Nova Scotia and the Great Lakes south to the Florida panhandle and east Texas, most abundant in moist woods and bottoms, where it sometimes forms a solid understory.

## How to grow Witch Hazel

Witch hazel is at home under taller trees but takes anything from deep shade to full sun in ordinary drained soil; more sun gives a fuller plant and heavier bloom. It grows nearly as wide as it is tall, so allow 10 feet from a building and between plants.

Plant bare-root or potted plants while dormant, in a hole twice the root width and no deeper, crown at the soil line, native soil back in, mulch off the stems. Seed needs a warm summer and then a cold winter before it sprouts: sow it outdoors in fall an inch deep, screen the bed from mice and expect seedlings the second spring.

Water it weekly through the first summer. Deer browse witch hazel and rabbits nip stems, so cage it for two or three years. It needs no pruning; shape it, if at all, in early spring after the flowers fade, since next fall's buds form in summer.

Witch hazel sets little or no seed with its own pollen, so plant two or more seedlings from different parents. Even in wild stands, fewer than one flower in a hundred sets fruit. New plants settle in slowly and may add little for a year or two. The November flowers are easy to miss when the leaves hang on around them. Cone galls on the leaves and spiny galls on twigs come from aphids and are harmless.

## Sources

- [USDA Fire Effects Information System: Hamamelis virginiana](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/hamvir/all.html)
- [USDA Forest Service, Plant of the Week: American witchhazel](https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/hamamelis_virginiana.shtml)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Hamamelis virginiana](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/hamamelis-virginiana/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Hamamelis chapter, Barbour and Brinkman](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Hamamelis.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Hamamelis virginiana](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=HAVI4)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Hamamelis virginiana, American Witch-hazel](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.128564/Hamamelis_virginiana)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Hamamelis virginiana](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/hamamelis/virginiana/)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Hamamelis virginiana, from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/hamamelis/hamamelis-virginiana/)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Hamamelis virginiana](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/plant-profile/HAVI4)
- [The Morton Arboretum: common witch-hazel](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/common-witch-hazel/)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Hamamelis virginiana](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=220006023)
- [Native Plant Network propagation protocol: Hamamelis virginiana, Davis, King and Kujawski 2002, USDA NRCS National Plant Materials Center](https://npn.rngr.net/renderNPNProtocolDetails?selectedProtocolIds=hamamelidaceae-hamamelis-2262)
- [Anderson and Hill 2002, Many to flower, few to fruit: the reproductive biology of Hamamelis virginiana (Hamamelidaceae), American Journal of Botany 89: 67-78](https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.89.1.67)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [What to plant under a big tree: native shrubs for shade, and how to plant without hurting the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/what-to-plant-under-a-big-tree/index.html.md)
- [Native trees for insects: the beetles, wasps, cicadas and fireflies that everything else eats](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-insects/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other witch hazels (Hamamelis) we grow: [Bigleaf Witch Hazel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bigleaf-witch-hazel/index.html.md), [Ozark Witch Hazel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/ozark-witch-hazel/index.html.md)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Arrowwood Viburnum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/arrowwood-viburnum/index.html.md), [Roseshell Azalea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/roseshell-azalea/index.html.md), [Wild Hydrangea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/wild-hydrangea/index.html.md) and [Pinxterbloom Azalea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pinxterbloom-azalea/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Florida Maple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/florida-maple/index.html.md), [Slippery Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/slippery-elm/index.html.md) and [Black Maple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-maple/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Ozark Witch Hazel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/ozark-witch-hazel/index.html.md), [Labrador Tea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/labrador-tea/index.html.md), [Mountain Witch Alder](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/mountain-witch-alder/index.html.md) and [Woolly Pawpaw](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/woolly-pawpaw/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Witch Hazel, add ?species=witch-hazel with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 3, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=witch-hazel&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Witch Hazel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=witch-hazel): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Witch Hazel as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=witch-hazel (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Witch Hazel is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=witch-hazel (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Witch Hazel needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=witch-hazel:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Witch Hazel where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=witch-hazel&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Witch Hazel goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=witch-hazel&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Witch Hazel flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=witch-hazel