We have a contorted hazel growing near the house, a sitting tenant inherited when we moved here. I can’t say that this would have been a natural choice of plant for me, the name is off-putting to ...

The corkscrew hazel is a great curiosity and immediately grabs attention, especially at this time of year, when the branches are bare and the catkins begin to open. Although the branches are twisted ...

It has been so cold and frosty in the garden recently that no time, save for a quick walk around, has been spent outside. It’s frustrating to look out from the house to see the lawn once again white ...

Along with spring comes life back into the garden. One of my favorite early spring shrubs is actually a small grafted tree known as Henry Lauders Walking Stick or Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’. During ...

When the sap falls in the autumn — yes, I know it's spring, but bear with me — a few shrubs and trees become prettier. The cold and the dormancy cause their bark to glow more intensely than in the ...

The hazel is a native wild tree, as at home in gardens as it is in hedgerows and woodlands. It is at its most obvious now, in flower along roadways and woodland margins all over the country. Its pale ...

Through winter, flowers get battered down by winter storms and berries fall or are eaten by wildlife, but brightly coloured stems and contorted twigs resist anything nature hurls at them. Finding ...