| Identity card of the plant | |
|---|---|
| Botanical name | Corylus avellana. |
| Common name | Hazel, Common Hazel, Sewing. |
| Family | Betulacea. |
| Origin | Europe, Urals, Northern Anatolia. |
| Size | 3 m wide - 3 to 6 m high. |
| Plant type | Deciduous fruit shrub. |
| Foliage | Obsolete. Leaves whole, cordate, acuminate, doubly toothed, borne by a short petiole. Soft green blade, slightly fluffy, soft to the touch. |
| Flowering | Monoecious plant |
| Exhibition | Shade, partial shade or non-scorching sun. |
| Ground | Normally rich in organic matter and humus, fresh. Planting in riparian forest possible. PH indifferent. |
| Rusticity | Rustic at -15°C. |
The hazel tree will delight you with its beautiful hazelnuts in autumn. Its branched and bushy silhouette coupled with a winter flowering and the generosity of its production make it an ally of biodiversity in the garden. Birds, squirrels, winter foragers and gourmet gardeners are at the party thanks to the hazel tree!
Does hazel grow fast?
This shrub is dynamic and to be reserved for locations that can support its beautiful dimensions.
On the side of its adult size, count a maximum height of the hazel tree of 4 to 6 m and almost 3 m in diameter!
The hazel tree grows relatively quickly when installed in cool soil. It is because it naturally rejects stump that it takes up so much space in width and its 10 to 12 trunks emitted from the base make its silhouette characteristic, remarkable, bushy and bushy.
Where and how to plant a hazel tree?
Do you have a large garden, a location with fresh ground (even on the edge of a pond or shore), a country hedge, or do you simply love its fruit? The hazel tree is made for you and it is an easy shrub to install as long as it is planted in a temperate zone of the garden:
- Neither in the too dense shade nor in the scorching sun,
- With a pH neither too acidic nor too calcareous,
- In cool soil.
In view of its development, the essential criterion for finding the ideal location of the hazel tree is to have in mind its dimensions in adulthood.
What exhibition for hazel?
The hazel tree appreciates almost all exposures when it has cool soil: in the morning sun or at the end of the day, in the undergrowth and even in full sun outside the Mediterranean climate that it tastes less than the climates of the North and East of the France. In the mountains, there are hazel trees up to about 1700 m altitude.
Little is known but the hazel tree is a pioneer species, settling as soon as possible in partial shade. This makes it a characteristic species of forest edge areas. Its dissemination is facilitated by squirrels, fond of its fruits, burying reserves of seeds here and there and forgetting some. Squirrels are therefore also nurserymen!
Little is known but the hazel tree is a pioneer species, settling as soon as possible in partial shade. Copyright (c) 2019 Cromo Digital/Shutterstock. No use without permission.
Tips for planting hazel:
- Choose a location where the soil is cool.
- Plant preferably in autumn, between October and March but outside periods of intense frost.
- While you dig a hole at least twice as big as its pot, soak the root ball. Mix a universal potting soil (1/3) with your garden soil (2/3).
- Install the hazel tree and adjust the height so that the root ball is level.
- Complete with the soil mixture.
- Squeeze at the foot, form a watering bowl and water copiously, even if you plant in winter!
Size of Corylus avellana
It is not necessarily necessary to prune a hazel tree unless it becomes too bulky.
If you are worried about feeling overwhelmed by this colossus, you can, in winter, after the leaves fall but before flowering, thin the trunks that are poorly placed or that cross at the base.
It is also possible to head a hazel tree to keep it at a height compatible with your environment and its growth (3 m for example).
Good to know: The fruits appear on the branches of the previous year. Trimming your hazel tree therefore has an impact on the harvest.
Corylus avellana: Flowers and fruits
The flowers of the hazel tree
The hazel tree blooms! During the winter, you will first see its male flowers, called kittens, hanging on bare branches. A few weeks later, still before the appearance of the leaves, it is the female flowers, discreet, carried at the end of a kind of hairy bud that appear on the hazel tree.
The hazel tree is self-sterile: its female flowers cannot be fertilized by its own male flowers. Hazelnut production is therefore correlated with the presence in its environment of other hazelnut trees.
Our advice: Plant them in pairs!
During the winter, you will first see its male flowers, called kittens, hanging on bare branches. Copyright (c) 2013 flaviano fabrizi/Shutterstock. No use without permission.
Fruits of Corylus avellana: hazelnuts
Hazelnuts are one-chamber nuts. In botany, they are described as woody achenes whose seed is eaten. This fruit is protected by an involucre of green and leafy bracts that dries during the summer and releases the achene. This one, green so far, begins to turn red until it reaches its pretty characteristic "hazelnut" color. The almond also takes the opportunity to ripen and load with sugar, oil and minerals. Hazelnuts are harvested in August, September and October, when the fruits are easily detached.
Hazelnuts: production and varieties
Turkey is the world's leading producer of this nut whose total volume traded is almost 1 million tons worldwide.
In France, we produce about half of the hazelnuts we consume. It must be said that the uses of this delicious little fruit are varied: plain, spread, chocolate and confectionery, as edible oil, for pharmacy and homeopathy, cosmetics ...
In France, we produce about half of the hazelnuts we consume.
Which variety of hazel to choose?
Many varieties of hazelnut trees have been selected for their productivity and fruit size. You will frequently find in the trade:
- 'Imperial of Trebizond'
- 'Wonder of Bollwiller'
- 'Piedmont Round'
- 'Fertile of Coutard'.