Our range of Hazel bare root plants (Corylus avellana)

We have Hazel bare root hedging plants in several specifications and heights.  The 1+0 1 year old specification plants are seedlings (often called whips) which were grown from seed sown in the spring and are sold during the following November to April months ie they are 1 year old.  We have Hazel whips in several heights all grown by us in Herefordshire.

We also have Hazel transplants (1+1) which began as a one year old whip (grown from seed in one growing season) and are then planted back out for one more growing season in a different area of our fields at lower density to give each plant more space, nutrients and water. Again these are all grown by us in Herefordshire.

Hazel is one of our most important species so we always have several batches of seed including UK provenance and some of the highest quality imported seed, so if it is particularly important to you to have UK seed provenance (see blog on seed provenance) please give us a call.

Hazel (Corylus avellana) Summary

Dripping with yellow “lambs’ tails” catkins in spring (before the leaves appear) and then covered in green hazel nuts in autumn (until the squirrels and dormice strip the tree before you can get to them!), Hazel is an excellent native plant for hedging or as an understorey woodland shrub although it needs open, light conditions to flower and produce its very nutritious nuts.  It grows to about 10m but is often coppiced (to harvest the stems), has large green leaves which provide good shade and wildlife protection. 

As a wood, Hazel's contribution lies in it's ability to self-coppice, regularly sending up new straight shoots from the base of the trunk so much so that sometimes it is difficult to tell if it has been coppiced by humans or not.  Hazel's value lies in it's pliabilityand the ease with which the rods split.  In a managed setting hazel is normally coppiced every 7 or 8 years and fresh shoots can grow over a metre in the first year.  In the last century, the area under coppice in Britain has fallen from 500,000 acres to less than 100,000 acres.

Soil and Situation

Hazel is a very commonly found shrubby plant grown all across the UK, Europe and even into Africa – so it is suitable for all but the highest, coldest, wettest situations, with a preference for moisture-retentive, acid to neutral soil, grown in full sun, partial shade or even full shade.

Leaves, flowers and fruit

The leaves of Hazel are green in spring and summer, turning yellow in autumn.  Leaves are relatively large and rounded/oval with a pointed tip, and a hairy surface on the underside which makes them feel soft to the touch.

The bark is smooth, grey/brown, can peel and is flexible thus Hazel is often coppiced for it’s long straight flexible stems which can be put to many uses – in a “dead hedge”, for hazel (called “hurdles”) or plant supports, thatching or making furniture.

Although Hazel has both male and female flowers on the same plant, it must be pollinated by pollen from other trees.  The male catkins are long and yellow and absolutely swathe the tree/bush in late winter (sometimes as early as January) before the leaves appear.   The pollen and nectar are needed by early flyng insects.  Pollen is shed onto little red female tasels and those pollinated will produce nuts.

The fruits are edible hazelnuts (though there are specialist varieties like Kent Cob if you are looking for a nut to grow as a food) but you’ll be lucky to get to eat any of them because squirrels, dormice, woodpeckers, wood pigeons, and jays will harvest them the instant they are ripe  They are held in small clusters of 2 or 3 nuts, partially enclosed in leafy husk like bracts.

The bark is smooth and shiny, pale grey-brown to greenish brown with horizontal lenticels (pores through which the shrub breathes) up the stems.

Eventual height and growth rate

If left to grow, Hazel will get to about 10m as a multi-stem bush but it is often coppiced when it reaches about 4m.  Growth rate is above average – about 50cm pa.   It responds really well to hard pruning and hedge laying.  As a hedging plant, it is best kept at 2-4m height.   It makes a bulky shrub so the proportion of Hazel in a mixed hedge can be quite low – 10% or even 5%.

Coppicing (felling the tree stump near ground level and allowing shoots to regrow) can extend the life of a hazel tree from about 80 years to several hundred years.

Betulacaea family.