Hazelnut flowers

Male catkins in winter

More than a few people have asked us, ‘What does your orchard look like in bloom? It must be beautiful in the spring!’ Well, we do think it’s beautiful, but truthfully, it’s nothing like the spectacular beauty of apple or cherry blossoms in bloom.

Hazelnut trees are what is known as monoecious, which means each tree has separate male and female flowers. The female and male flowers look very different from each other. Male flowers, often called catkins, begin to form in late summer and stay on the tree through the winter.

Female flower (left) and male catkins (right) in spring

As the grip of winter fades, the female flowers bud out, and the male flowers become green and elongated and start to shed their pollen. This all happens before there are any leaves on the trees.

Female hazelnut flowers

In our part of New York State, the tiny female flowers start to bloom in March and flower over a period of several weeks. They’re tiny, only about an eighth of an inch long, but they’re usually a gorgeous bright magenta pink, so it’s too bad that they’re not bigger.

Close-up of female hazelnut flower (photo from The Northwoods Center)

This long flowering period is well-suited to unpredictable Spring weather – in our region, it’s pretty typical for warm 50-degree days to be followed by snowstorms the next. With female flowers opening at different times on different trees, in case of a sudden cold snap it’s likely that fewer of the tiny female flowers will be frozen or frost damaged. Unlike apples, peaches, and cherries, hazelnuts are wind-pollinated, rather than pollinated by bees or other insects, so the blustery winds of March and April (as long as they’re not too cold!) help to blow pollen throughout the orchards.

By May, the flowering and pollenization is over and the trees have leafed out. Fruit begins to set in July and ripening happens until the nuts are a ready to harvest beginning in late August till the end of September.

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