My yellow Hamamelis is, as usual at this time of year, in flower. So I thought I'd check on the orange one. It too is in flower .... but yellow.
It's just one branch that is flowering, and it's a branch that starts from very low down. So I conclude that my orange hamamelis is grated on to a yellow rootstock. Would anyone agree with this conclusion?

On 15/10/2012 22:46, kay wrote:
My yellow Hamamelis is, as usual at this time of year, in flower. So I
thought I'd check on the orange one. It too is in flower .... but
yellow.
It's just one branch that is flowering, and it's a branch that starts
from very low down. So I conclude that my orange hamamelis is grated on
to a yellow rootstock. Would anyone agree with this conclusion?

Pretty sure that is the case. They graft the cultivars onto seedling
stock. They are very early to be flowering now but then it is an odd
year. Mine are usually out in January. My Daphne is flowering tho!

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Yes it is Kay. A lot of the showier colour forms and even the large yellow flowered varieties are somewhat weaker on their own roots. That is if you can persuade them to root! They are usually grafted onto H. virginiana root-stocks which impart vigour and enable nurseries to produce saleable plants within a reasonable time scale.

Thank you Dave and Martin.

Yes, my Hamamelis give a good show at the conventional time (Jan/Feb), but for the past few years the yellow one has also flowered in autumn, a lot less showily because the leaves are still on. Quite a lot of plants seem to give a secondary autumn display- primula, dog violet, Clematis alpina, medlar for example.