Flower Power, Back To Health, Happy Birthday Bruv & Witch One?

Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
4^th February 2023

Flower Power

One of my most favourite things to share from the plant world at this time of year is the most unassuming, little red female flower that you can find (if you look really hard) on the hazel trees now.

The hazel has both male and female flowers on each tree, with the male flowers contained within the long, confident catkins, or ‘lambs tails’, that we all know and love. Each catkin is actually made up of loads of individual small green/yellow male flowers, which produce the pollen. There are around 240 male flowers in each catkin, which are formed during the previous summer so that they are ready to open in the dead of winter and flower through the spring.

Hazel is wind pollinated, so the pollen from the catkins is blown to the delicate female flowers – the ones that so few people know about.  It always makes me smile that the confident male catkins are well recognised as they show off and shout about spring and yet the little humble female flowers go unnoticed.  It’s that little red flower that produces the hazelnut in the autumn.

Hazel flowers are also an important source of early pollen for bees.  Pollen is an essential source of fats and proteins, and very different from the nectar, which is a sugary food source to provide energy and allow production of honey.

I know I write about this fabulous little flower around this time every year, but if only one new person discovers them then it is worth repeating myself. And I also love the fact that people take a photo of the flower and send it to me with the caption, ‘Saw this and thought of you’.  What a beautiful, unassuming flower to be associated with.

Do take the time to have a look for this special little flower if you can.

Back To Health

And talking about ‘unassuming’, this week’s ‘unassuming hero’ is Ieaun Thomas, a chiropractor based in Ebbw Vale.  Not surprisingly the nature of my work at this time of year tends to be particularly physical, which together with being cold most of the time, resulted in every gardener’s nightmare – a bad back.  A bad back always reminds me of the clever cartoonist, Bill Tidy telling me, ‘What every gardener needs is a cast iron back with a hinge in it.’  He later sketched and sent me the most beautiful cartoon illustrating his theory.

Since qualifying in sports massage, I managed to keep myself mobile for a week or so but eventually called on Ieaun’s expertise and am glad to say ‘I’m good to go’ again.  He has been responsible for ‘keeping me going’ for years, having to straighten me out about two or three times a year.  ‘Not bad considering how much you abuse yourself,’ he always reminds me – although I do try to stay as fit as I can, stretching every morning and keeping strong and flexible to avoid recurring injury. My latest ‘overload’ was new, and it was weirdly satisfying to learn all about a different set of trigger points and ‘grumpy muscles’ (as Ieaun refers to them). How’s that for positivity?

Happy Birthday Bruv

Happy Birthday to my fab’luss brother, Ian – who often gets referred to as my ‘bother’ in columns, purely by accident and overlooked by spell-check.  We tend to work together more often during the winter months catching up on bigger jobs that don’t get done during the growing season.  I never cease to be impressed by his ability to get things done – very much like our dad used to be – only one speed but effective.

Last week he was climbing and sorting out some overgrown fruit trees whilst I kept my feet firmly on the ground and ‘directed’ – “the one behind your left shoulder; no, the other left.”

He’s also got a great sense of humour, which is always helpful towards the end of a busy week.  Yesterday, he was complaining about his Bob Marley secateurs – apparently they kept on jammin’.

Happy Birthday Bruv – keep on jammin’

Witch One?

The witch hazels – unrelated to hazel (Corylus) and witches – are providing a lovely splash of winter colour now.  The fragrant, spidery flowers are in all their glory as they appear before the leaves and are slender stems are also lovely in a vase indoors.

The name witch hazel is derived from ‘wice’ or ‘wiche’, which means pliant or bendable. Along with the hazel (Corylus), it is considered to be a good choice for dowsing or divining.

The Hamamelis group are good value for money, with different varieties providing numerous blossom colours and size options, even for the smaller gardens. As well as the heartening winter displays, most varieties provide another splash of colour in autumn when their leaves change colour before falling.

Hamamelis mollis is the original form of the tree whereas the Hamamelis x intermedias are hybrids, a cross between the japonica (Japanese witch hazel) and mollis (Chinese witch hazel) – think of them as ‘intermediates’ between the parents.  But don’t be put off by the technical stuff, just check the descriptions carefully to make sure it’s suitable for your plot.

Hamamellis x intermedias have some lovely coloured flowers from ‘Strawberries and Cream’ with pale yellow and soft red blooms.  ‘Diane’ has unusual, copper-red flowers with a light scent. The leaves turn a dramatic shade of yellow in winter.  ‘Aphrodite’ has slightly crimped, orange-red, strongly scented flowers. The leaves turn an intense red before falling in autumn.  ‘Magic Fire’ and ‘Firecracker’ produce fiery red flowers that will brighten up your winter garden.  Hamamelis mollis ‘Goldcrest’ is a Chinese witch hazel with large, golden yellow flowers tinged with maroon. They have a strong, sweet scent.  Do check the growth habit and eventual size though – don’t be swayed just by the colour of the flowers.

Whilst blooming in the winter obviously makes the flowers vulnerable to frost damage, the super-clever, spidery flowers just curl up in really cold weather to prevent being ‘scorched’.  Proof that being smart is more conducive to longevity than being pretty.