How to Grow and Care for Fothergilla

Fothergilla spp.

Fothergilla, Fothergilla spp., is a woody shrub within the Hamamelidaceae or witch hazel household suited to cultivation USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to eight.

It blooms in early spring, infusing gardens with a honey-sweet perfume.

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In the summertime, leathery darkish inexperienced foliage gives a wealthy backdrop to annuals and perennials.

It lights up the autumn panorama with orange, pink, purple, and yellow leaves for a spectacular end-of-season show.

Learn on for all it’s essential to know to domesticate fothergilla in your out of doors residing area.

Right here’s what we’ll cowl:

Let’s begin with a little bit of background.

Cultivation and Historical past

Fothergilla is native to the southern United States. It was named for British doctor and plant collector John Fothergill, who introduced American species to England throughout the 18th century.

Shrubs have a clumping type with attractively zigzagging branches and darkish inexperienced to blue-green, leathery foliage with deep ridges.

The shrubs are monoecious, which implies they produce each female and male flowers and these are mixed in the identical inflorescence.

The feminine flowers are nondescript, whereas the male blooms are pollinator magnets. They’ve petal-less, creamy white stamens that resemble bottle brushes with a honey-like perfume, that bloom for 2 to a few weeks in spring.

Latest analysis has confirmed 4 distinct species inside the genus:

F. gardenii, dwarf or coastal fothergilla or witch alder
F. main, tall or mountain fothergilla or witch alder
F. milleri, dwarf witch alder
F. parvifolia, Kearney’s dwarf witch alder

The three dwarf species are so comparable that many horticulturists contemplate them to be variations of F. gardenii and refer to those crops merely as “dwarf” or “giant” fothergilla.

F. gardenii and F. main are the 2 you’re almost certainly to seek out when searching for shrubs.

Alabama fothergilla was beforehand categorised as a definite species, F. monticola, however it’s now thought-about to be F. main.

Dwarf species and cultivated varieties are finest suited to Zones 5 to eight. They develop to mature dimensions of 18 to 36 inches tall and 24 to 48 inches broad.

Development is compact and bushy, the flowers seem earlier than the foliage, and the leaves have symmetrical bases.

Giant sorts develop finest in Zones 4 to eight, reaching six to 10 ft tall with a width of 5 to 9 ft.

They’ve an upright, spreading progress behavior, and bloom on the similar time the leaves emerge. The leaves are bigger than these of the dwarf species, and the bases are asymmetrical.

There are additionally hybrid varieties categorised as Fothergilla x intermedia.

Along with the species talked about, fossilized specimens of two US species, F. malloryi and F. praeolata, and others in China and Japan point out that the Fothergilla genus dates again tens of millions of years.

This implies an environmental resilience probably chargeable for its exemplary pest and illness resistance, and desirability as a business and residential panorama shrub.

Fothergilla Propagation

There are a few methods to propagate your personal fothergilla shrubs, together with from cuttings and by transplanting nursery begins. Ranging from seed is just not advisable for dwelling growers.

Let’s check out every of those.

From Seed

Fothergilla disperses seeds in a projectile vogue at season’s finish.

Collected seeds are tough to sprout as they require each scarification to weaken the seed coat and cold-stratification to organize the seed for germination.

It might probably take between 9 and 15 months for seeds to germinate.

Additionally, seeds from hybrids and different cultivated varieties is probably not viable. If they’re, they gained’t produce true replicas of the mother or father crops.

To clone a favourite, take tender stem or sucker cuttings.

From Sucker Cuttings

Suckers are child crops that emerge from the crown beside the mother or father within the spring.

With out pruning, suckers create a colony of shrubs, which can be fascinating if you happen to’re rising fothergilla for privateness hedging.

To take away a sucker for propagation, select one that’s at the very least 4 inches tall.

Use sanitary shears to sever it cleanly at its base, taking care to not injury neighboring plant tissue or go away jagged edges that will invite pests and pathogens.

Recut the stem slightly below the bottom leaf node, a pure rising level.

Dip the lower finish into rooting hormone powder.

Place the stem in a four-inch seed starter pot crammed three-quarters stuffed with potting soil at a depth slightly below the bottom remaining leaf.

If there’s tip foliage along with the bottom leaf, pinch off the most recent progress on the tip.

Put the pot in brilliant, oblique daylight and preserve the soil evenly moist however not waterlogged.

New leaves signify the profitable institution of roots and readiness for transplant.

From Softwood Stem Cuttings

To take a softwood stem slicing:

Lower a four-inch size of soppy, inexperienced stem slightly below a leaf or leaf node. The stem needs to be lengthy sufficient that it has a number of leaf nodes.

Pinch or snip off the bottom leaf and the tip progress, then dip the lower finish of the stem into rooting hormone powder.

Insert the dipped stem right into a four-inch seed starter pot three-quarters stuffed with potting medium to a depth slightly below the bottom leaf.

Moisten the soil and preserve it evenly moist throughout institution. Place the pot in brilliant, oblique daylight.

When new progress seems, transplant the slicing to the backyard earlier than summer season’s finish to provide it time to ascertain earlier than the primary frost.

Some gardeners additionally take greenwood cuttings somewhat later in the summertime, but when there isn’t sufficient time for the slicing to root and develop foliage earlier than first frost, you’ll should retailer the pots indoors for the winter and plant them out the next spring.

Transplanting

When transferring a seedling, rooted slicing, or nursery plant to the backyard, it’s essential to set it barely increased than the bottom stage to facilitate extra water runoff.

To plant, work the soil to a depth of 12 inches and at the very least twice as broad as the basis ball till it’s crumbly and free from particles and rocks.

Amend with compost as wanted to acidify the rising setting.

Elevate transplants barely above floor stage. This sort of mounding units the crown, the place the roots and stems meet, excessive to make sure the ample drainage fothergilla requires.

Backfill and tamp down firmly. Water nicely and tamp once more to deflate air pockets.

Maintain the brand new begins evenly moist however not waterlogged till they turn into established. New foliar progress signifies success.

The right way to Develop Fothergilla

F. main and F. gardenii favor full solar to partial shade and organically wealthy, barely acidic to impartial soil with a pH of 5.0 to 7.0.

Conduct a soil check as wanted to find out the rising circumstances in your backyard.

Moisture wants are average, and as soon as established, these shrubs have above common drought tolerance.

Throughout institution, preserve even moisture with out oversaturation after which provide an inch of water per week within the absence of rain.

In case you are rising a number of standalone shrubs, be aware the anticipated mature width and permit sufficient area between specimens to attain it.

For hedges, nearer planting improves density, however the heart of every plant needs to be at the very least 12 to 24 inches aside to keep away from root crowding.

Rising Ideas

Plant in full solar or half shade.
Develop in organically wealthy soil with a pH of 5 to 7.
Present an inch of water per week.

Pruning and Upkeep

In early spring, take away suckers that develop across the shrubs per the directions within the propagation part above, except you wish to encourage the shrubs to tackle a multi-branch type and colonize the world.

Amend the backyard soil with an acidic compost, reminiscent of pine bark or shredded leaves, to counterpoint and acidify it.

Fertilize a few times within the spring with an acidifier, like Holly-Tone, per package deal directions.

Espoma Holly-Tone

Holly Tone has a 4-3-4 NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) ratio. It’s natural and breaks down naturally, infusing soil with vitamins and acidity.

Holly Tone is obtainable from Espoma through Amazon.

After the flowers end blooming, prune branches as desired to take away lifeless materials, form, or shorten. For directions, see our information to pruning shrubs and woody crops.

Fothergilla Cultivars to Choose

When deciding on species and cultivars, contemplate rising zones, measurement, summer season and fall leaf coloration, and any highlights famous in plant descriptions.

Listed below are some choices to think about:

Blue Shadow

F. main ‘Blue Shadow’ is a cultivated tall selection with mature dimensions of 5 to 6 ft tall and broad.

‘Blue Shadow’

The spring and summer season foliage is a placing blue-green that shades to orange, pink, and yellow in autumn.

F. main ‘Blue Shadow’ is obtainable from Nature Hills Nursery.

Dwarf Fothergilla

Dwarf F. gardenii has darkish inexperienced foliage, white blossoms, and spectacular fall yellows, reds, and oranges. It grows as much as three ft tall and broad.

It’s the straight species discovered within the wilds of the southern United States.

Dwarf Fothergilla

Dwarf F. gardenii is obtainable from DAS Farms through Amazon. Vegetation are one- to two-feet-tall in one-gallon pots with soilless media for transport.

Mount Ethereal

F. main ‘Mount Ethereal’ is a tall cultivar that prefers full solar and matures to a peak of 5 to 6 ft with a ramification of 4 to 5 ft.

‘Mount Ethereal’

Its leathery inexperienced foliage shades to blue-gray in the summertime and bursts into orange, purple, pink, and yellow within the fall.

F. main ‘Mount Ethereal’ is obtainable from Nature Hills Nursery in #3 containers.

Managing Pests and Illness

Whereas not vulnerable to pests or illness, fothergilla could fall sufferer to both or each if weakened by poor rising circumstances, reminiscent of an iron deficiency inflicting chlorotic or yellow leaves.

The first illness of concern is Pseudocercospora leaf spot brought on by the fungal pathogen Pseudocercospora fothergillae.

Signs embody brown recognizing, leaf browning, and leaf drop. Environmental stress and oversaturated circumstances favor fungal improvement.

There are not any severe pest points related to crops within the Fothergilla genus.

Greatest Makes use of for Fothergilla

The stature of the shrubs you select helps decide their finest panorama placements.

Tall species and cultivars make wonderful privateness hedges, particularly if you happen to permit the suckers to stay in place to create density.

Dwarf sorts are suited to low-profile hedging, basis placements, blended shrub groupings, backyard beds and borders, and standalone specimen positions.