corylus avellana contorta - or so it says on the label !

we've had it since february, and it has grown one 'new' branch - but the new
branch it straight - what should we do, leave it or lop it ?

regards
Mike

p.s. - i've read such plants should be fed with a 'high nitrogen'
fertiliser - can anybody suggest a suitable brand

"mikey mike" wrote in message
...
corylus avellana contorta - or so it says on the label !

we've had it since february, and it has grown one 'new' branch - but the
new
branch it straight - what should we do, leave it or lop it ?

regards
Mike

Hi Mike,

I'm pretty sure that corkscrew hazel (AKA Harry Lauder's Walking Stick)
aren't grafted, so your tree shouldn't revert to common hazel (straight
branches). As it's a slow growing tree I'd be tempted to leave the branch
and see what it does. BTW the best time to prune is in late winter (Jan /
Feb).

HTH

Cheers

Nick
http://www.ukgardening.co.uk

In article , mikey mike
writes
p.s. - i've read such plants should be fed with a 'high nitrogen'
fertiliser - can anybody suggest a suitable brand

All fertilisers have a set of three numbers somewhere on the label
giving the relative concentrations of nitrogen (N), potassium (K) and
phosphorous (P)

If you want good leaf growth you need the N number to be as high or
higher than the rest. For flower and fruit, you need the N to be lower
than the other two.

I doubt whether there is any need to feed the hazel. It's not a
particularly greedy plant, and will over the years grow quite big all by
itself. After 10 years, ours is 8 ft high with an 8 ft spread (or it had
until we reclaimed our path) and with a trunk too large to clasp your
hands around.




--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In article , mikey mike
writes
corylus avellana contorta - or so it says on the label !

we've had it since february, and it has grown one 'new' branch - but the new
branch it straight - what should we do, leave it or lop it ?

Lop it.

Contorted hazel always does send up a few straight branches from the
base. Since the contorted branches also have contorted leaves, if you
leave the straight branches they will develop larger and become steadily
more dominant.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

"mikey mike" wrote:

".........we've had it since February, and it has grown one 'new' branch -
but the new branch it straight - what should we do, leave it or lop it ?
......"

Remove it as it will outgrow the rest of the plant and grow about 3 times as
fast.
My Corkscrew Hazel is over 25 yrs old and has never had any fertilizer, and
never thrown a straight shoot.

Most of the plants for sale are Grafted, as it is almost impossible to get
it to root, you may sometimes get plants that are either layered or grown
from offshoots, but they are rare.
--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

On Mon, 9 Aug 2004 15:18:17 +0100, "mikey mike"
wrote:

corylus avellana contorta - or so it says on the label !

we've had it since february, and it has grown one 'new' branch - but the new
branch it straight - what should we do, leave it or lop it ?

Yes, cut off the straight branch. They grow more strongly than the
twisted ones and need to be cut ASAP, right to the base.
They are much more attractive in winter than in summer!
I would give it a general feed of something like Phostrogen rather
than too high a nitrogen feed at this time of year.

Pam in Bristol

"mikey mike" wrote in message
...
corylus avellana contorta - or so it says on the label !

we've had it since february, and it has grown one 'new' branch - but the
new
branch it straight - what should we do, leave it or lop it ?

Lop it!
They chuck out quite a few straight branches and these always grow faster.
We had one in the garden when we moved here - except the plonker we bought
the house from had been cutting out all the corkscrews because he thought
the plant was diseased!
It took a lot of savage lopping to restore it - but now we have a fabulous
shrub.

mikey mike wrote:

corylus avellana contorta - or so it says on the label !

we've had it since february, and it has grown one 'new' branch - but the new
branch it straight - what should we do, leave it or lop it ?

regards
Mike

I have had this tree in my front garden for about 10 years now and it sends
quite a lot of these straight shoots from around the base - I think I might
have planted it too deep.

I only get to see these shoots when the leaves fall, which is when I cut
them down, close/below ground level.

I can't remember the last time I watered it, and definitely never fed it,
but it seeems to be doing quite well - it produces lots of hazelnuts.

It's not particularly nice in summer - very messy when the leaves are on,
but in winter and spring it's a different story, really graceful, specially
when the catkins elongate and the tiniest bright pink flowers show up on
the branches

"mikey mike" wrote in message
...
corylus avellana contorta - or so it says on the label !

we've had it since february, and it has grown one 'new' branch - but
the new
branch it straight - what should we do, leave it or lop it ?

Mine grows like lightning. Occasionally it grows a straight shoot, and
I just remove it when I see it. I prune it excessively hard in the
autumn.....Almost coppicing it. It thrives on it.

Franz

"mikey mike" wrote in message
...
p.s. - i've read such plants should be fed with a 'high nitrogen'
fertiliser - can anybody suggest a suitable brand

Mine is in a boder in which it just has to share the occasional
handful of Growmore with the other inhabitants.

Franz

On Mon, 9 Aug 2004 15:18:17 +0100, mikey mike wrote:

corylus avellana contorta - or so it says on the label !

we've had it since february, and it has grown one 'new' branch - but the new
branch it straight - what should we do, leave it or lop it ?


It's a sucker from the un-contorted rootstock. You want to get
rid of it.

How? Good question. If you cut the sucker off at soil level,
it'll just re-grow from below.

A method I've been told of but haven't tried: dig away the soil
to expose the point of origin of the sucker. Then *tear* the
sucker out/off. Then, as the wound gradually heals, every time
you see a tiny shoot starting to emerge, you rub it out. Rub,
rub, rub.

Question: do cuttings of hazel ever root? I have a Harry Lauder's
walking stick that is badly afflicted with rootstock suckers and
I'd like to get a plant on its own roots. Would I be wasting my
time dibbling contorted cuttings into the soil? Remember, I only
need one to root...

The fact that one sees old, neglected specimens of the contorted
hazel with no suckers indicates that it is possible to get them
on their own roots. Sadly, one of the most magnificent specimens
in Victoria was bulldozed out of existence several years ago when
the building it ornamented was converted from a casino (formerly
a restaurant) to a credit union. I gather that our architects are
not taught the value of established plants; lifted and balled, it
would have been worth a small fortune.

The restaurant as originally constructed had a very subtly laid
out Japanese-influenced garden around it; the big stones in it
obviously had been selected and sited with considerable care.
When it was converted to a casino, these all got shuffled around
and re-set higgledy piggledy, and stopped being worth looking at.

So much for horticultural sensitivity in "the city of gardens".

In both these instances, city hall stood by with its mouth gaping
open like a dimwit. Can't get in the way of someone trying to
make money, you know. Never mind the adverse effect on public
amenity values.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]

On Mon, 9 Aug 2004 16:49:53 +0100, Nick Gray wrote:

I'm pretty sure that corkscrew hazel (AKA Harry Lauder's Walking Stick)
aren't grafted...

Every one I've ever seen for sale here is grafted or budded.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]

David Hill wrote:

Most of the plants for sale are Grafted, as it is almost impossible to get
it to root, you may sometimes get plants that are either layered or grown
from offshoots, but they are rare.

Interestingly, whenever seedlings germinate from my Contorted
Hazel, they are always straight.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

"Rodger Whitlock" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 9 Aug 2004 16:49:53 +0100, Nick Gray wrote:

I'm pretty sure that corkscrew hazel (AKA Harry Lauder's Walking Stick)
aren't grafted...

Every one I've ever seen for sale here is grafted or budded.
--
Rodger Whitlock
Hi Rodger,

I thought I would check my reference books. According to my RHS Pruning and
Training book, it says "Corkscrew hazels and willows are ungrafted". However
I'm willing to accept that demand is probably outstriping supply, so
nurserymen are grafting contorta onto other rootstock, in order to try to
meet this demand.

Sorry for any confusion that I may have caused.

Cheers

Nick
http://www.ukgardening.co.uk