The Village Gardener: Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

By Georgeanne Vyverberg –

Here it is, the middle of the last month of the year. Holiday season is in full swing and the first seed catalogs are arriving daily. I received the first one just after Thanksgiving, but I don’t let myself sit down with them because I would be lost forever. Some are so full of information and ideas as to boggle my imagination of what I could do here on this scant half acre.  Some like FEDCO SEEDS of Maine are simply beautiful and contain veritable works of art within its nearly 200 pages. One never throws these catalogs away but refers to them over and over through the gardening season. That one arrived in yesterday’s mail and fortunately I was on my way out the door and so dutifully placed it in the growing pile till after the holidays.

Last month’s column was lost to a computer mishap. I was working on some mail and my computer was at the edge of the desk..well it was a bit over the edge. Two of my cats came chasing one another up on the desk and across to the computer which slid down while I tried frantically to catch it, but alas did not. To add insult to injury one feline managed to entangle his legs in the wires and dragged it across the floor all the while howling his dismay. When I looked at the screen there was a lot of gibberish and no amount of coaxing would make it disappear. “Broken hard drive” was the diagnosis my computer tech came back with after a day at the shop. Also, he failed though made every effort to regain my “data”. The repairs cost most of what I had earned the past week in pet sitting fees, which was good but also bad because those funds were earmarked for Christmas shopping. After a few minutes of asking myself why I have cats, one of whom is feral and who after nearly three years “lets” me pet him, other bad thoughts came to mind.  I pushed the thoughts of rehoming etc. to the furthest parts of my mind, and now I am simply trying to recapture what I thought to share with my readers last month.

I had started out bemoaning the briefest of Falls and now snow encrusted leaves are everywhere on lawns and in mountainous piles along the street. I began to tell you about one of the first shrubs I planted here three summers ago. In November Witch hazel was just beginning to bloom (and it still is). It has the tiniest pale, yellow squiggly flowers and is the latest native shrub to flower in the season. These flowers become hardened capsules over the next year. Under the perfect conditions and warmth these capsules pop open and shoot their black rice like seeds as much as five to ten feet. That is how I discovered this wonderful plant.

Many years ago when I was building my house, I lived for several years without running water and therefore no bathroom. I used an outhouse, which was snuggled up against the hill behind me and at the shrubby edge of the woods. One late Fall day I was out there and heard what sounded like tiny pellets being tossed on the walls of the outhouse. Upon investigation I saw what was the cause and stood there awhile witnessing this natural storm of seeds.

Since this shrub flowers so late in the year it was a mystery as to how it got pollinated. Too cold for most insects to be flitting about. Lots of guessing about just who were the pollinators, but fairly recently (1989) Bern Heinrich who studies thermoregulation in both birds and animals discovered accidentally that a species of Owlet moths are the pollinators. These moths mostly look for injured trees, which are oozing sap to get their food and have also found these late blooming plants of Witch Hazel.  These moths need to raise their temperatures 50 degrees in order to fly at night and they do it by shivering.

Witch hazel has been used by Native Americans for a variety of ailments like colds and coughs and it’s also been used for easing muscle pain. Another use of the forked twigs has been for the “dousing” or “witching“ of wells. When I finally got the funds to drill a well a friend suggested I hire a “douser” and I thought, “why not?”  I never really got around to looking for someone, but the day the well driller showed up with his monster of a rig, a car made its way up the driveway and an elderly man got out introducing himself , saying he heard I needed a “douser”.  Surprised, I acknowledge this and went to get some Witch Hazel sticks, but the man had brought his own “divining rod” and, looking somewhat disparagingly at my offerings, went walking about for nearly 20 minutes or so, finally choosing the spot and saying he felt the strongest pull there. I could see the downward action of the divining rod and asked if it would work for me, whereupon he handed it to me. “Any instructions?” I asked. He shook his head back and forth. I walked slowly over toward the spot he had designated and felt a slight pull as I did so and a stronger one at the spot. It was magical! It worked! I turned to ask the gentleman about his fee but declining he got back in his vehicle, taking his divining rod with him. I never saw him again, but I can report that a very good well was dug…also very expensive.

I want to take this opportunity to wish all of you the best in this Holiday season. See you next year.