Chinese Witch Hazel

Common Name: Witch Hazel

Scientific Name: Hamamelis mollis ‘Princeton Gold’

Origin: Southeastern and Southwestern China

Family: Hamamelidaceae

Bloom time: Winter

Said to be the most fragrant of all witch hazels, this shrub produces strappy, golden flowers with red centers along bare branches from early to mid winter. Chinese witch hazels are open, upright, medium-to large shrubs reaching 10 to 15 feet tall at maturity. Its serrated, rounded leaves turn a showy orange in the fall.

The name Hamamelis is a combination of the Greek words hama and melon, literally "same time fruit," which refers to its fruit and flower occurring simultaneously. The cultivar, 'Princeton Gold', is a nod to its discovery, when it was found in 1988 growing in a row with Hamamelis mollis ‘Fragrant Yellow’ in New Jersey's Princeton Nurseries.