Winter-flowering plants give pleasure out of all proportion to their size or numbers - and one of the most spectacular is the golden-flowered witch-hazel. The blooms are like a burst of sunshine in grey Januaries.

Later, the bright yellow leaves warm up fall.

People looking for a slow-growing tree with two seasons of beauty have a chance to see witch-hazels in bloom right now at their local nursery. This is definitely the time to check out flower colour and fragrance while you can see and smell exactly what you would be getting.

Generally it's the golden-flowered witch-hazels that are fragrant. That includes the deep yellow 'Arnold's Promise' and the pale yellow 'Pallida.'

But not all witch-hazel flowers are golden. Some are orange ('Jelena'), while others are shades of red ('Diane' or 'Ruby Glow'). Red or orange flowers usually have faint or no fragrance, and the fall foliage tends to be red, orange or a spectacular mix of both.

Witch-hazel is fairly easy to grow, hardy to Zone 5, and tolerant of many soils (though happiest in well-drained but moisture-retentive ones). The spidery flowers open in early to mid-January, scrunching up in bitter cold then opening wide again when the temperature rises.

Most popular, easy-to-get witch-hazels are hybrids between the Japanese witch-hazel (Hamamelis japonica) and the small, fragrant Chinese witch-hazel (Hamamelis mollis).

Besides being slow-growing, H. mollis is also slow to root during attempts at propagation. That's why witch-hazel hybrids are usually grafted onto a faster-rooting, more vigorous species: Hamamelis virginiana. The hybrids are still slow-growing, but eventually reach about four metres. They're hardier than the species, and easy to garden under, because the branches are diagonally upright near ground level, branching and widening as they gain height.

Cutting witch-hazel branches for indoor vases can trigger sucker growth below the graft, because the rootstock tries to replace the lost branches. It's best to pull suckers off when very young, because older suckers need to be cut and will likely re-grow.

H. virginiana suckers produce small yellow flowers in fall, which are hidden by yellow leaves - nice, but not hugely ornamental. This is the herbal medicinal witch-hazel used for its astringent effect on blood vessels.

Generally, witch-hazels need very little pruning, aside from removal of dead, badly placed, or diseased branches - and their response to pruning is unpredictable. Instead of shoots appearing where growth buds ought to be, they will instead produce branches from very inconvenient spots.

Witch-hazel seed usually needs two chilly winters outside to remove germination inhibitors. When I grew them from seed it took an additional eight years (and a severe talk to them about composting!) before flowers appeared.

I've heard they can be layered. Most shrubs can be, though with witch-hazels I suspect it would be a long process, in view of their generally slow growth.

Breeders in the US are working on improvements to a winter-flowering American witch-hazel species H. vernalis which reaches just over two metres. Flowers of some of the results are said to range from reddish purple to purple. They include H. vernalis 'Amethyst,' said to have purple-red flowers with a spicy scent and scarlet foliage in fall.