Hazel question

I collected a recently cut back hazel stump and was wondering the best way to reduce leaf size? I'm not 100% but I think it's a common hazel.

I've collected a few from my garden as seedlings (we have a full size hazel) and they seem to respond to partial defoliation with subsequent leaves being smaller - haven't tried fully defoliating as these are nowhere near fully developed, and I probably shouldn't be messing with them yet, but there is a fairly constant supply....
To compare - one seedling which I have left in the soil now has leaves about 3 times larger than the potted and defoliated ones. I would recommend though that you let your tree establish in its new home for this season to recover from the collection trauma before doing anything much with it. That seems to be a general rule for most collected trees

Dave

I have no experience with hazel's first hand, but I have been toying with the idea of trying a few. But this post calls to mind a tip from Peter Tea, and other teachers have said roughly the same. Develop the tree from the nebari and trunk up. Don''t worry about leaf (or needle) size until you have the trunk and main branches set. Levels of ramification will naturally reduce leaf size. When getting to the point where you are ready to show, then its time to really work on leaf size. And the tree will be much stronger than it was initially, and should be much more able to tolerate partial or total defoliation.

Witch hazels are usually displayed leafless. If the leaves never reduce enough, it may be one of those trees you mainly display in winter.