Pacific Northwest Gardening: Chinese Witch Hazel, 1 by Pistil

Pistil wrote:
Finally- an answer that may help. I have been researching this on the internet. Some places describe the pretty winter flowers on the leafless branches, a few refer to problems with retained leaves. I have been going to nurseries and asking, without anyone seeming to know anything. It is bloom time right now, so today I went to Flower World, (their "Pallida" in pots have leaves too, though the 5 foot tall standards "Arnold Promise" looked fine. But again nobody seemed to know why, or if it is fixable. Then I went to MOLBAKS. A very knowledgeable fellow said Hamamelis is known for having this problem- it usually means NOT ENOUGH WATER IN THE SUMMER, so the leaves do not mature properly. In fact he had one that did this, the problem was solved when he increased summer watering. Yay.