MY OLD mum swore by the bruise-healing properties of witch hazel long before it ever caught on in the mainstream.

But she would probably have been unaware of the beauty the brilliantly blooming varieties bring to the garden in winter — just when we need some colour.

Nothing says winter like blooming witch hazels.

Not only are they a feast for our eyes, they are invaluable to insects at a time of year when there is not much else about.

Hamamelis are deciduous shrubs with broadly egg-shaped or rounded leaves, with some varieties colouring well in autumn before leaf fall.

Depending upon the variety, they bear their fragrant yellow to red flowers with four narrow petals in late winter, early spring or the autumn.

The flowers, which are frost-resistant, look especially striking because they are borne on bare branches.

Lubera, a company better-known for its pace-setting fruit tree development, has brought to the market two brand new varieties of Hamamelis intermedia to bring a touch of the winter wonderland to gardens.

They are Barmstedt’s Gold, which as the name suggests is golden, and Aphrodite which brings a burnt orange glow to the garden.

Here are some quick witch hazel facts for you:

l Flowering: January an February.

l Height: 140cm to 2m.

l Width: 100cm to 160cm.

l Fragrance: lightly scented.

l Use: beds and borders, containers, group plantings, as a specimen plant.

l Hardiness: fully hardy.

l Soil: just about any kind, moist or dry, excepting extremely heavy.

l Location: partial shade, full sun.

Lubera has whetted gardeners’ appetites with another announcement — a somewhat nutty one.

A couple of years ago I tried growing a variety of monkey nuts, which, eaten fresh from the ground on a salad, is a very different critter from the dry or roasted variety most of us love.

I am now looking forward to trialling Justmore which, Lubera tells me, has big pods, most often with three or four large peanuts inside.

If planted in June, up to 80 peanut pods can be expected per plant. If planted at the beginning of August, much more can be expected.

Unlike some varieties, Justmore will withstand wet autumns when planted late and harvested late in October, when the shoots are still partly green.

Most other varieties would already be completely dried up.

Monkey nuts are especially useful to those with only a small, sunny, space available because they grow best in a container which also makes them easy to harvest.