I’d like to introduce you to Curly. Curly is a contorted filbert, also known as Harry Lauder’s Walking stick, also known as corkscrew hazel, also known as Corylus avellana. How appropriate to put this shrub in this weekly series on winter interest. Curly has been in our yard for about 10 years now, and is a wonderful specimen plant in the winter.
The curly branches you see are a little bit of heaven for birds. The branches are excellent for the birds to perch on while they wait their turn at one of our feeders. This year I’ve been lamenting that our bird feeders are all but empty, and we have now seen the hawk that is helping to make it so. We’ve added two Christmas trees near our feeders thanks to Scott’s suggestion at About.com. One tree was ours, one tree Mike ‘appropriated’ from a neighbor. I personally think he should have waited till after Christmas, but the decision was not mine to make. About.com also has an article on the best foods for birds in the winter.
We did make a classic gardener’s mistake – underestimating the size of the mature plant. Curly wants to be about 8′ wide and tall, and is fighting it out with a tanyosho pine. Both are now too big for us to be comfortable moving them. The battleground is not a pretty site, as the pine has become misshapen by Curly’s proximity. The pine may win yet win the war … the contorted filbert has been showing signs of Eastern filbert blight. By the time you see the signs, the plant has probably been infected for a year or two and the prognosis is not good. Mike removed the infected branches, which is why Kevin was able to provide us with this striking photograph. I couldn’t bear to part with the beautiful branches and I am sure to find a use for them someday.
Contorted filberts aren’t much to look at in the summer. They strongly resemble Cousin It. We love ours even then since the birds flock to it. Filberts want full sun, and we give it no special care. We do prune the occasional straight branch that pops up. Appropriately, I will categorize under the Work Less tab as well.
This is an installment in the OhWhatAWednesday series, where I dare to take on the task of finding something in my garden that looks good even during a Chicago winter.
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