Harry Lauder's Walking Stick shows off in the winter landscape
One of the most fascinating shrubs in the winter landscape is Corylus avellana Contorta. Its common names include corkscrew hazel, contorted filbert and Harry Lauder's Walking Stick.
I prefer Harry Lauder's Walking Stick. I can picture the cane made from one of its crooked branches used by Sir Harry Lauder in his vaudeville act in the early 1900s.
Most plants sold in garden centers are grafted — a branch of C. avellana “Contorta” grown on the roots of C. colurna (commonly called Turkish hazel). They grow 8 to 10 feet tall and about as wide. Not fussy about their growing conditions, they are equally happy in full sun or part shade.
Harry Lauder's Walking Stick blooms in late winter or early spring before the foliage appears. Male flowers are brownish yellow catkins that dangle from bare branches. Female flowers are barely noticeable just above the catkins. Lightly crinkled, large green leaves are attractive, but not spectacular and fall color is unexceptional.
Its branches — superbly spiraling and contorted, teasingly twisting and coiling — are this shrub's claim to fame. Concealed when covered in foliage, its silhouette is a dramatic focal point in the winter landscape.
Plant Harry Lauder's Walking Stick as a specimen to be viewed in the winter — near a driveway, outside a kitchen window or at the corner of a patio. Plant one in a large container, set it in a spot where it can provide a lush green backdrop for flowering perennials, and then move it up to a deck in the winter to enjoy the picturesque scene of juncos and chickadees perched on its curious, snow-covered branches.
Don't forget to prune out some magnificent branches to use in floral arrangements. They are as lovely combined with winterberry in a Christmas arrangement as they are with tulips in a spring bouquet.
No plant is perfect and this one is no exception. Suckers from the root stock must be pruned out so the shrub doesn't revert to the straight-stemmed species. Japanese beetles feast on its foliage — spraying, systemic insecticides or hand picking beetles will be required.
There are purple-leaved cultivars of Harry Lauder's Walking Stick. Most often found at garden centers is Red Majestic. Its foliage unfurls deep reddish-purple and fades to reddish-green by midsummer. Cooler fall temperatures bring on tones of purple before leaves fall to reveal its branching structure. Catkins are rosy purple.
• Diana Stoll is a horticulturist and the garden center manager at The Planter's Palette, 28W571 Roosevelt Road, Winfield. She blogs at gardenwithdiana.com.