Henry Lauder’s Walkingstick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’)         

March is that transition month. It’s still winter, but spring is in the air. Walking through the arboretum this week, I discovered a drift of Tommasini’s crocus, a clump of snowdrops (Galanthus), and a Lenten Rose with pure white flowers. Winter this year was hard on the hellebore foliage. But if you cut off the brown tattered leaves, you’re left with stalks of beautiful flowers. The crocus started out as a few plants and have spread and naturalized under a tree in the shade garden. Along the brick sidewalk is a long hedge of Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum). The long arching branches are covered with bright yellow flowers. Keep walking and you will come to a shrub with very crooked branches—Henry Lauder’s Walkingstick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’). This shrub is a cultivar of the European Filbert which is valued for its nuts. The contorted shrub form is usually an 8 to 10 foot tall bush of twisted, curled branches. The male catkins are still on the branches. This plant is a specimen for winter interest. Without its leaves the quirky branching habit is on display. Filberts like well-drained, organic soil, are pH adaptable, and need full sun to light shade. We’ll have some more freezing temperatures, but our plants are showing us that spring will be here soon.