Red Dragon Contorted Filbert (Harry Lauder's Walking Stick)

With its deep maroon-purple leaves on twisted corkscrew branches, the Red Dragon Contorted Filbert is guaranteed to please with outstanding form, texture and purplish/red color. The wavy leaves hold their color for most of the growing season before dropping in winter to reveal the twisted branches. In late winter clusters of bronze-orange catkins (flowers) emerge hanging in clusters from stem-tips just before the new leaves arrive.

Growth Habit

Red Dragon' Contorted Filbert is a purple-leaved selection of European hazelnut that will reach around 6' tall with an equal spread in 10 years. The foliage emerges in spring a dark burgundy to maroon color, and maintains this deeply saturated tone through summer. The catkins, which emerge in late winter, are also somewhat red in color. 'Red Dragon' features twisted or "contorted" branching, and the leaves also have a wavy or curled appearance. Fruit is a hard edible brown nut (to 3/4” long) enclosed in a leafy, hairy, light green husk. Nuts are known as cobnuts. Nuts ripen in late August and September (with polinator). In Europe, cultivars of this shrub are commercially grown for nut production.

Care

Best grown in moist, organically rich, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Tolerates average garden soils. 'Red Dragon' is often sold as a grafted specimen attached to a Corylus avellana rootstock. Promptly remove root suckers to help maintain plant appearance and prevent thicket formation. Also prune out any stems that have reverted and lost their purple leaf color or twisting form.