Chilean Hazelnut   the chilean hazelnut (gevuina avellana) is an evergreen tree growing up to 20 meters tall. It's a beautiful tree that makes edible nuts that are highly esteemed in chile. Its branches can be very useful to florists since they keep for a long time and the flowers are pretty. I met Klaus Speicher, a german man who was living here in brittany and who had travelled to south america and brought back seeds. He had several gevuina trees growing at his place and ended up giving me a crate of seedlings. Gevuina is not an easy tree to grow and often when young they can just die for no apparent reason.

They like moisture and the gulf stream climate with cool summers and mild winters suits them well. They are surprisingly cold-hardy and will survive up to minus 10 degrees celsius. I have 6 trees left from the seedlings i was given. These seedlings have been grown from a tree in Klaus' garden that made seeds for him so it is the second generation of gevuina growing in brittany

I will continue to grow these beautiful trees from seeds as soon as mine will make some and hope to further adapt and spread this amazing plant.