Hazel tree in garden advice needed?

I have a large red leaved hazel and the squirrels regularly provide free new ones. Kept one, and the others I pot up to give to friends.

A young friend had a baby 5 years ago and messaged me to say she'd called him Rowan. I went to the woods in the afternoon and dug out a small wild rowan and put it into a nice pot and took it for my first visit. It is now in a large pot and about 2 metres high. Soon they will have their own home, and the rowan will be lovingly planted in a corner at the bottom of garden.

I had a Rowan tree taken out of my front garden because it was growing directly above the water supply but I bought a little Rowan tree from Wilkos and put it in a large pot. It’s now getting quite big. No point replanting it where the other tree was but I’m scared that it will die if I just leave it in it’s
pot. There’s nowhere in my tiny garden to plant it.

Watch out for squirrels. DD has too many now, all over the garden, due to squirrels forgetting where they hid the nuts!

Thank you for this advice. I have decided to plant in the ground and will keep it in trim.

We have several in the hedge and they get cut back every year, they still produce nuts for the squirrel which he buries all over the garden.

Hazel can be coppiced I.e cut right down, usually every 3 years and will grow back showing It is very prolific. With hazels in my native hedge we trim to 2-3ft every Spring and by September it is 8ft high. So do pot your hazel out but you will need to prune it in spring and Autumn to keep it to a manageable side. You can use the cut off branches as sticks for peas etc in the garden.

Hazel can be coppiced or even cut to the ground, and will grow back.

A friend gave me a hazel sapling and I planted it in a somewhat dark corner of my garden. It has grown over the years to just above the height of the fence. I just cut it (height & width wise) to the size I want to keep it. I expect it doesn’t grow as quickly as if it were planted in a sunnier place, but trimming it once a year is still necessary. Naturally, if you leave most things for 4 years without pruning they'll grow much bigger!

Ours was pruned severely four years ago and is now twice its original size, so beware!