| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| tai haku |
hazelnut haven......or maybe filbert fantasy?I've been pondering the idea of chucking some good hazels/filberts in my hedge for a while now. Today the idea took form (or at least a price). Some background first I guess. About 20 years (when I was maybe 14 or so) ago my dad bought a field at the bottom of our (already excessively large) garden. We didn't really want it at the time but wound up buying it to stop it being bought and likely developed by someone else. The field became known in the family as our arboretum and we wound up filling it with rare and exotic trees but the first thing we did was fix the hedge which had become very thin due to horse damage and was all hawthorn. In amongst the brutally chopped back hawthorn went 50 hazels and seeing those plants grow started my love affair with this genus. A line of trees became a proper hedge with a beautiful shape and eventually a stile! 
The slightly soft arching stems created a wonderful soft shaggy hedgeline, with lovely catkins in spring, followed by huge impossibly soft green leaves and eventually nuts. Those hazels were followed by others into my heart - a friend had a huge red filbert C. maxima purpurea (I believe it's the standard one not the form Red Zellernus) and gave us suckers and self seeded plants to put in the hedge and woodland which grew huge and delivered me my own suckers here years later. 
We added another little parcel of land which came with two big coppiced hazels which yielded huge crops of big nuts and which are obviously cultivated varieties of some kind and planted more - the golden hazel (Corylus avellana aurea) and the wonderful hybrid trazel Te Terra Red (a cross between the aforementioned purple filbert and the turkish hazel Corylus colurna) 
So I'm in love with hazelnuts and was reminded of this by my discovery of this awesome blog: http://badgersettresearch.blogspot.com/ I've always had my own day dreams about owning a farm with vast amounts of hedging into which I could plant seedling hazels, plums mirabelles and damsons all grown from seeds of known good varieties with a view to producing a superproductive hedge (and, who knows, perhaps my own special variety of something). I'm also living on a small island with no squirrels and no jays. Time to take action and put my nuts where my mouth is so to speak (  ). Today I bought....
4 potted hazels/filbert The huge one at the front is the commonly grown hazel C, avellana "Cosford" - an 1816 introduction with heavy crops of big thin shelled nuts. The smaller ones are: C. avellana "Tonda di Giffoni" - an ancient italian variety that (per a rutgers breeding programme) is the standard setter for nut quality. C. maxima "Gunselbert" - a filbert the RHS suggests produces big crops of medium sized nuts. Also supposed to be a great pollinator for others. Corylus avellana "aurea", the golden hazel - another variety I have history with in the family. Here's the parents' in fruit: 
As you can see, small heart shaped nuts with golden leaves, I know it looks green but these are the shaded lower leaves - less shade and younger leaves = more yellow. Meanwhile my new plant is trying to produce nuts of its own already 
Of course, in keeping with my history, I couldn't resist when I found a little batch of bareroot hazel hedging. These were threaded into the hedge this arvo. 
I also, in keeping with family tradition, have a batch of 4 or 5 purple suckers growing in the garden to get big enough to hang tough in the hedge someday. 
I'm planning to propagate all my varieties as quickly as possible using layering and, if and when, they start producing fruit - I want to set at least some of those seeds to start producing my own improved hedge hazels. hopefully the end result will be more photos like this: 
This is labelled Turkish Hazel in my file which makes me think I picked them off Te Terra Red. So then hazels: whose got what? how are they doing? who has propagated by layering? anyone had success growing from seed of named varieties? anyone up for a nutswap? any other business? Edited to correct naming gaffe. |
| Treacodactyl |
Interesting, I note you have no squirrels or jays. We have loads of hazels (at a guess 500 or so) but they've not been hugely productive. Jays certainly are about in abundance but I also think mice and voles take their fair share and the weather hasn't been great (nuts have formed but nothing inside).
We put in 3 x Cosford (Cob), 3 x Kentish Cob (Lambert's Filbert) and 3 x Pearson's Prolific (Nottingham) and I'm grateful they've survived the wet summer. I noticed the odd flower on them but I don't expect nuts for year or two more. And thanks for the reminder, I must try layering (pleaching) a few plants this year. |
| gray_b |
No grey squirrels, that would be sheer bliss 
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| wellington womble |
And I thought I was fond of hazel! Although for the coppice more than the nuts. I've got a tiny wild one, and keep meaning to squeeze some more into the hedge.
Hazel is my favourite woody plant. Wands, withies, poles, charcoal and firewood, plus nutritious nuts, fresh green leaves and pretty catkins. Easy to grow, and practically indestructible. What more could you ask for from a plant? |
| tahir |
This is what we planted:
Butler 24 Cosford 24 EMOA1 24 Ennis 24 Gunslebert 24 Gustav's Zeller 8 Halls Giant 24 Kentish Cob 24 Lange Tidling Zeller 8 Pautet 6 Pearsons Prolific 6 Red Filbert 8 Segorbe 6 Tonda Di Giffoni 8 Webbs 6 Happy to send out named variety seed to anyone here. Hope to plant some trazel's or turkish hazels when I get the money |
| tahir |
While we're talking about nuts I'd love seed of any of the following:
Pinus cembroides Pinus culminicola Pinus edulis Pinus flexilis Pinus johannis Pinus maximartinezii Pinus nelsonii Pinus quadrifolia Pinus remota Pinus sibirica Pinus strobiformis Pinus torreyana Torreya nucifera Torreya californica Torreya grandis |
| Nick |
Shorter than it used to be
Shorter still |
| tahir |
Glad I posted my list, that's 2 I can cross off me list! |
| Nick |
Live to serve. |
| Treacodactyl |
Happy to send out named variety seed to anyone here. |
Would the seed come true? I wouldn't have thought it would, although it would be fun trying one day as you may well end up with something just as good or even better.
