Instructions, timing, tips and more

Cut the witch hazel after flowering

If winter still has a firm grip on the garden, the Witch hazel her flower dress on. From the end of January until March, the flowering wood with cheerful splashes of color puts us in the mood for the approaching spring. Due to the early flowering period, the time window opens for pruning when the flowers have wilted.

Slight correction cuts are allowed

With strong cuts you get the displeasure of the flower beauty. As a result of the leisurely growth, every careless cut leaves a gap that affects the well-groomed appearance for a long time. As a rule, the witch hazel does not grow out of old wood at all. However, the ornamental wood tolerates a moderate corrective cut. How to cut with a sure instinct:

• Best cutting tool: tree or Secateurs with Bypass mechanism
• Cut frozen twigs back into sound wood
• Deadwood at the base, respectively on Astring thin out
• Cut off unfavorably positioned branches that grow into the interior of the bush or branches that are growing transversely

The younger the witch hazel, the better it can cope with pruning and continues to grow. In order to regulate the growth form, shaping interventions should be completed by the fifth year of standing. On older specimens, you should carefully plan each individual cut and its necessity weigh up.

Cut the witch hazel for the vase

There is nothing wrong with bringing the winter blossoms of a witch hazel into your home. Please cut off flowering branches so that no long stub is left. Such “coat hooks” call out pathogens and pests.

Better to divert long branches - this is how it works

If you feel compelled to prune a long branch, a special mitigates Cutting technique the visual impact on the witch hazel. In gardeners' language, the cut is called a derivative. That is how it goes:

• Select an outward-facing, young side shoot near the desired intersection
• Cut off a disused branch at the fork to the young wood
• Place scissors or saw a few millimeters into the old wood

The young side shoot guarantees that there are no noticeable gaps in the bush. Choose from several candidates the shoot that points in the desired direction of growth. Unless you can find a suitable branch, choose a promising intersection bud.

A Derivative cut is also the method of choice if you want to remove old, excessively long branches from an oversized witch hazel bush. If you don't remove more than one or two old branches per year, the witch hazel won't hold you against this intervention.