Catkins open between February and April, and by autumn the branches carry clusters of blond or green nuts among delicately formed, colourful leaves. The common hazel (Corylus avellana) is grown for both harvest and looks; plant two different varieties, since a single tree cannot self-pollinate, and nuts follow each autumn.
Corylus avellana facts
Name – Corylus avellana
Family – Betulaceae
Type – fruit shrub
Height – 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters)
Exposure – full sun
Soil – ordinary, well drained
Foliage – deciduous
Flowering – February to April
Harvest – fall
It is preferable to plant your Corylus avellana in fall to promote root development before winter.
But you can also plant it in any other season of the year, as long as you avoid high temperatures in summer and cold winter freezing.
It is critical that you plant 2 different varieties together to ensure fertilization and fruit-bearing. Check when purchasing your hazelnut trees that they belong to different species.
The Corylus avellana is a shrub fruit tree that is very easy to care for and that requires practically no care at all.
Note that pruning isn’t really needed, but pruning at the end of winter, and keeping the Corylus avellana reasonably sized will increase the harvest.
If you wish to cut the tree back drastically, or prune the tree severely to even out the branches, never do it before the blooming which takes place from winter to spring, or else you won’t have any hazelnuts.
The hazelnuts are ready to be harvested when the fruit detaches from the branch and falls to the ground.
The hazelnut weevil or Curculio nucum enters the hazelnut and eats it up entirely.
That makes for quite a bad surprise when you realize your hazelnut is hollow!
Hazel asks for very little, but the few jobs it does need are tied to fixed moments in the year. This table gathers each stage described above, so you can see at a glance what is due and why.
| Stage | When | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Planting | Autumn, ideally | Plant in autumn so roots settle before winter; any other season will do if you avoid summer heat and winter freezing |
| Pairing for pollination | At planting time | Set two different varieties together, as one tree cannot pollinate itself |
| Flowering | Winter to spring | Leave the shrub alone: hard pruning before bloom costs you the whole crop |
| Pruning | End of winter | Cut new growth back by half, remove dead wood and branches over ten years old |
| Harvest | Autumn | Gather the nuts as they detach from the branch and drop |
| Nut weevil control | Before the first frosts | Scratch and turn the soil surface so the overwintering pests are exposed to the cold |
Keep to these few dates and a single shrub bed or hedge will feed you every autumn.
Since two different varieties must be planted together for nuts to form, one of the pair could be ‘Red Majestic’, a choice that plays to the shrub’s ornamental side as much as to the autumn harvest.
The name Corylus comes from latin root corulus, which is how the Romans called the hazelnut tree. That in turn came from earlier Greek Korus, which means “helmet”, because the cupula or hulls that surround the edible part of the nut look like a tiny finger helmet.
Corylus avellana must be planted together with another Corylus avellana so that hazelnuts may appear, this is necessary for fruit formation since a tree cannot self-pollinate.
So set it up in a shrub bed, or add it to your hedge, that will make your hedge even more ornamental and especially, productive!
Hazelnuts are always harvested in fall but even if hazelnuts are themselves the prime appeal of this large shrub, it also has a definite ornamental value thanks to its delicately formed colorful leaves.
Read also:
Remove suckers that grow from the base often to maximize productivity and ensure your Corylus avellana retains a beautiful bearing.
