Hamamelis mollis - Witch hazel

Hamamelis mollis - Witch hazel

Location: Dunham Massey National Trust. H. mollis is a deciduous shrub that is planted for its ornamental features and for its fragrant flowers. They can reach heights of 4m and can take 10-20 years to get there, this specimen is around 2m tall so its already halfway through its ultimate growth capacity. It prefers to grow in full sunlight and moist-well drained soils. Around it are ornamental grasses, tulips and daffodils in the background.

The flowers that appear in late Winter are frost resistant and produce an irregular crown of yellow-paper like strips for petals.

The bark appears grey, this specimen has moss growing around it thats giving the distinctive green colour.

The leaves are ovulate with a point at the tip and are serrated on the margins. They have small hairs on the underside.

An emerging leaf showing it's hairs and another earlier emerged leaf behind it.

Hebbe spp.

Hebe spp.

Location: Longford Park, Manchester. Hebe is a genus of dense evergreen shrubs with simple paired leaves that grow opposite each other and create remarkable geometric patterns this way. They are commonly used as boundary defining plants and are generally disease and pest free which is another reason why it's often used in urban areas such as roads, car parks and public walkways.

This species is called Hebe rakaiensis commonly known as 'Rakai hebe'. It's dense growth give it a bushy characteristic.

The leaf bud is shown at the top of the main shoot ready to split into two leaves, a lateral shoot can be seen growing out of the main one to helping create the dense bush.

The stems narrow, dark brown and bumpy.