I bought this Witch Hazel a few years ago and have never been able to identify the cultivar with any confidence. I know it's not an 'Arnold Promise." And I'm fairly sure it's at least a Hamamelis x intermedia. It usually blooms in early winter, but, because of our unusually warm temperatures, the leaves are still hanging on--they're usually gone by the time blooms start in December. I've attached a couple of photos below. Any thoughts?
There's a Timber Press witch hazel book if you want to look at that, see if any of the photos and descriptions of the many different cultivars seem to fit yours. It has a lot of pictures showing the flowers of each kind.
http://www.helmers.de/pflanzen/laubgehoelze/hamamelis_intermedia_westerstede.php In the capital of the Ammerland the town Westerstede in northern Germany we know this variety 'Westerstede' of H. intermedia Witch Hazel, which is more lemon yellow than 'Arnold Promise' and was selected by Friedrich Helmers, who grafted it onto the rootstock of H. virginiana. Since Westerstede also is the capital of continental Europe for Rhododendron exhibitions, there come many international visitors to the Ammerland every May and June, and so the variety of 'Westerstede' might have found a way to the state of Washington. As we know from the Russian botanist Michurin, new varieties can be formed through grafting. And so we see here an earlier flowering Hamamelis intermedia with the longer hanging and elliptically elongated leaf of Hamamelis virginiana together.
