Filbert

Sun

Full sun to partial shade; full sun gives the best nut crops.

Water

Moderate; keep the root zone evenly moist while establishing and during nut development, without waterlogging.

Soil

Fertile, moisture-retentive but well-drained soil; tolerates clay and chalk if drainage is adequate.

Height

12-20 ft (3.7-6 m)

Spread

12-20 ft (3.7-6 m)

Flowers

Late winter to early spring: dangling pale-yellow male catkins and tiny red female flowers, before the leaves open.

Foliage

Broad, rounded to heart-shaped green leaves with toothed edges; usually yellow in autumn. Purple-leaved selections are also grown.

Growth

Moderate to fast once established.

Care needed

Medium

• Pollinators
• Cold hardy
• Wildlife
• Edible

Northern hemisphere months. In Australia, shift them by six.

Difficulty

Moderate

Toughness

Fairly tough

Pick your zone, country, light and whether you have pets.

1. Planting day

   1.9 ft (0.58 m)

2. After 1 year

   5 ft (1.6 m)

3. After 2 years

   9 ft (2.7 m)

4. After 3 years

   12 ft (3.8 m)

5. After 5 years

   16 ft (4.9 m)

   full size

About 4 years to full size.

From a typical nursery size, at an average rate for this kind of plant. A rule of thumb, not a forecast.

Cats and dogs

Safe

Growth rate

Fast

• Plant two genetically different, compatible hazels with overlapping flowering times if you want nuts; two plants of the same cultivar are not enough.
• Water deeply during dry spells for the first two growing seasons and while nuts are filling.
• Apply a 2-3 in (5-8 cm) organic mulch, keeping it away from the stems.
• Feed in spring only if growth is weak or a soil test shows a deficiency; excess nitrogen encourages leaves rather than nuts.
• Remove unwanted basal suckers annually unless you want a broad thicket.

Pruning. In late winter, thin crowded stems and remove dead or crossing growth, retaining an open framework of younger, productive wood. Once established, remove a few of the oldest stems at ground level each year rather than shearing the whole shrub.

Pick nuts in late summer or autumn when the husks turn yellow-brown and the nuts loosen readily; collect fallen nuts promptly before squirrels take them. Remove the husks and dry the nuts in a sheltered, airy place before storage. Nursery-grown plants commonly give a first worthwhile crop about 3-5 years after planting, but seedlings and poorly pollinated plants can take longer.

Autumn

Plant while the soil is workable, allowing room for the mature spread and a compatible pollination partner.

Late winter

Thin crowded stems, remove unwanted suckers and check for cankers or dead branches.

Early spring

Refresh mulch and water new plants if rainfall is low.

Summer

Water during prolonged dry weather, especially while nuts are developing.

Late summer to autumn

Check ripening nuts frequently, harvest promptly and dry them before storage.

Late autumn

Clear leftover nuts and diseased debris from beneath the shrub.

• Use as a loose boundary screen where its broad, suckering habit has room to develop.
• Include in an edible hedge with compatible hazels, keeping access open for harvesting.
• Place at a woodland edge with spring bulbs beneath the canopy for flowers before leaf-out.
• Grow as a multi-stemmed specimen in a large lawn or informal border, where winter catkins are visible.

Garden styles it suits: Woodland, Native hedgerow, Food forest, Edible landscape, Homestead and Winter interest.

Plant it with: Snowdrops, Daffodils, Primroses and Woodland strawberries.

Wildlife: Wind-pollinated, but bees may collect pollen from the catkins. Nuts feed squirrels, mice and some birds, while dense stems provide shelter and nesting cover.

• Poor nut set: provide a genetically different, compatible hazel with overlapping pollen shed; cold or wet flowering weather can still reduce the crop.
• Eastern filbert blight, especially in North America: look for elongated stem cankers and rows of dark bumps; prune infected wood well below visible symptoms in dry weather and seek local advice. In affected areas, a locally recommended resistant hazel may be a better choice.
• Nut weevils: larvae leave empty or damaged nuts; collect and destroy infested and prematurely fallen nuts promptly.
• Squirrels and other rodents: harvest as soon as nuts ripen; secure, wildlife-safe mesh protection may help on small plants.

Not known to be toxic to cats, dogs, horses or people. The kernels are edible, but hazelnuts can cause severe allergic reactions in susceptible people; whole nuts and shells can cause choking or intestinal blockage in pets, and mouldy nuts should never be fed to animals.

• Common hazel (Corylus avellana)

  Its nut husks are usually open and leafy, exposing much of the nut; filbert has a long, tubular husk extending beyond the nut. Cultivated hybrids can blur this distinction.

• Turkish hazel (Corylus colurna)

  Usually forms a single-trunked tree with corky bark and nuts surrounded by deeply divided, bristly husks, rather than a suckering shrub with tubular husks.

• Beaked hazel (Corylus cornuta)

  Its husk narrows into a conspicuous slender beak and is covered in stiff hairs; filbert husks are broader and less bristly.

Corylus is the classical Latin name for hazel, and maxima means 'largest', referring to the plant's comparatively large fruits.

Propagation. Layer flexible young stems or lift well-rooted suckers during dormancy. Sow fresh nuts outdoors with protection from rodents; seedlings vary and do not reliably preserve cultivar traits. Named fruiting selections are commonly propagated by layering or grafting.

Accepted botanical name

Corylus maxima

Native range

Yugoslavia.

Measured

Average height 500 cm.

Sources: GBIF (CC BY 4.0) and Trefle (CC BY 4.0). The care and design notes are LandscapeGPT's own.