Jelena is among the most celebrated of the hybrid witch hazels, selected at Kalmthout Arboretum in Belgium and named for Jelena de Belder, who helped develop it alongside her husband Robert. What sets it apart from yellow-flowered cultivars is color: the long, strap-shaped petals emerge in a warm copper-orange, suffused with red at the base, creating a glow that reads from a distance in the low winter light. The flowers are sweetly fragrant and open from January into March, appearing on bare ascending branches before any foliage stirs. It grows slowly to 8 to 12 feet, with a spreading, vase-shaped form that becomes increasingly graceful with age.

Full sun brings out the best flowering, but Jelena tolerates light afternoon shade. It wants fertile, well-drained, mildly acidic soil and regular moisture — this is not a plant for dry, compacted sites. In autumn, the leaves turn in shades of orange and scarlet, making the shrub as valuable at the end of the season as at the beginning. Pruning is rarely needed beyond removing crossing branches; do it immediately after bloom to avoid cutting away next winter's flower buds.