Arnold Promise: Care, Growing Guide, & Facts
Arnold Promise Plant Description
‘Arnold Promise’ (Hamamelis x intermedia) is one of several well-known cultivars resulting from a combination of Japanese witch hazel (H. japonica) and Chinese witch hazel (H. mollis).
Landscape usage of ‘Arnold Promise’ and kindred cultivars is becoming more prevalent than natural witch hazel species. These cultivars are sometimes grafted onto native H. virginiana rootstock, resulting in a plant that may develop undesired suckers—but this is the only drawback to a somewhat extremely easy-to-grow shrub.
‘Arnold Promise’ is a deciduous blooming shrub known for its spidery, shiny yellow blossoms that appear even before the foliage unfolds in late winter or early spring. This might be the first blossoming plant of the season, blooming even while the ground is still covered in snow.
This cultivar features 6-inch-long oval-shaped leaves with serrated margins and a low branching, vase-shaped growth habit. In the fall, the foliage acquires a lovely yellow-orange colour.
These bushes have a slow growth rate, taking several years to attain a height of 15 feet. They do best when planted in the fall, but they may also be planted in the spring or summer if watered often and deeply.
How To Care Arnold Promise?
‘Arnold Promise’ is a somewhat carefree shrub with a low-branching habit that allows it to mature into a small tree. The most difficult maintenance operation is simply removing any suckering shoots that emerge below the graft site to maintain the shape’s integrity.
This type does not always require much in the way of feeding or trimming, and once it’s established, it doesn’t even need much watering. Caterpillars and Japanese beetles munching on the leaves, powdery mildew, and occasional leaf blotches are some of the more common issues that might develop.
Witch hazel tree branches were employed as dowsing rods by European immigrants in the New World. The word “witch” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word wych, which means “to bend,” as a divining rod is believed to do when it discovers water.
How To Grow Arnold Promise?
i. Light
Grow ‘Arnold Promise’ in a location that receives at least 4 hours of direct sunlight per day, and blooming will be best in a full-sun location that receives at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day. Plants grown in shadier circumstances may be more spindly.
ii. Soil
This plant, like other witch hazels, thrives in an organically rich, wet, well-drained soil. It will grow in clay soil as long as it is well-drained. Witch hazels like acidic soil but may grow in neutral to somewhat alkaline conditions.
iii. Water
Witch hazels should be watered frequently for the first 2–3 years, until they develop on their own. After that, they just need to be watered during dry weather.
iv. Temperature and Humidity
Hybrid witch hazels are hardy from USDA zone 5 downstream and can withstand cold as low as minus ten degrees Fahrenheit. Although the ‘Diane’ cultivar grows well into zone 9, these plants are not suitable for climates warmer than zone 8.
These plants require temperatures below 45 degrees to bloom, so they aren’t a suitable choice in areas where temperatures don’t fall below a certain level.
These shrubs will endure both dry and wet weather within their hardiness zone if the soil is kept moist.
v. Fertilizer
Mature bushes don’t require much in the way of fertilisation. Young plants may benefit from a late-winter or early-spring top-dressing with a granular balanced fertiliser. An acidifying fertiliser may be beneficial to soil that is overly alkaline.
Arnold Promise Pruning
Suckers developing at the bottom of the plant should be trimmed away as soon as they appear below the graft point to keep the vase form. These suckers are normally rootstock branches, and their blooms will not be as lovely as those on the grafted top half of the plant.
The higher branches should be pruned for form as soon as flowering is over in the spring. Pruning off dead or diseased branches, as well as branches that rub one against another, is a good idea at any time with shrubs.
Varieties of Arnold Promise
Other Hamamelis x intermedia cultivars are also renowned, and come in a variety of colours:
1. ‘Diane’ (Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Diane’) is a cultivar that is taller than it is wide, growing 8 to 12 feet tall and spreading up to 15 feet wide. Copper-red blossoms adorn the plant.
2. Coppery-orange blossoms with twisted petals characterise ‘Copper Beauty’ (H. x intermedia ‘Copper Beauty’). With a combination of orange, red, and yellow hues, fall colour is especially spectacular.
3. ‘Ruby Glow’ (H. x intermedia ‘Ruby Glow’) is identical to ‘Arnold Promise’ in form and size, but the blooms are copper-red and the autumn colour is a darker red-orange.
Native Witch Hazels vs Arnold Promise
In addition to these hybrid x intermedia varieties, there are two native North American witch hazel bushes that are occasionally cultivated in cultivation:
1. From October to December, Hamamelis virginiana (common witch hazel) blooms with yellow blossoms on a 15- to 20-foot-tall bush. It can withstand temperatures ranging from 3 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Hamamelis vernalis (Ozark witch hazel) is a 6- to 10-foot shrub that thrives in hardiness zones 4 to 8. It blooms in the winter to early spring, having yellow blossoms with crimson centres.
Arnold Promise Landscape Uses
Integrate witch hazel shrubs into a bed of other deciduous bushes near a window for an unobstructed view of these lovely plants in late winter and early spring.
In the middle of the encircling plants’ sparse limbs, you’ll see an eruption of yellow. When in bloom, witch hazel plants are attractive enough to be used as modest specimen plants.
The bushes are very ordinary-looking after blooming in the spring and summer, yet those who appreciate nuance may love the vase-shaped appearance in the winter.
