Is anyone growing these? they do grow wild up here so I'd like to try some, but wondering if there are any particular problems or concerns.

Hi there! I sent a donation to the Arbor Day Foundation early in January to join the Hazelnut project. They will be sending me 3 hazelnut trees. www.arborday.org
If I remember the articles they have taken on the project to hopefully repopulate filberts in the country. The early contributors will most likely be contacted from time to time to share how the trees are doing. I'm excited about having these trees for the nut crops! I don't know a whole lot about growing them yet either and have never had any nut trees. I see old pecan trees here in SC that no one ever does anything to. I think these will get 15-20 feet tall.

Hi Valerie - thanks for your post, I didn't realize they had a "hazelnut project" going and am going to check that out. I did order 5 of the native-type hazelnuts from Musser Forests; I see there are some improved varieties but they would be questionably hardy here. Years ago I lived in SC for just a short time (6 months) but we had some big pecan trees in our yard that we were able to harvest nuts from just before we moved back to Michigan -- brought bags full of them back here, shelled them out and stored in the freezer, had enough to use for quite a while! What a treat that was...

When we moved to this property there were 5 beautiful hazelnut bushes , unfortunately they were inside the barn-lot paddock and I did not protect them I did not realize what they were until too late , they were destroyed by the horses.

They grow like a bush here rather tall 12 foot or so
I have been thinking of getting some more
How long before young ones produce?

There is a disease that effects them in a lot of areas, so resistant varieties can be important. On my phone now, so will try to post more later. One green world and raintree sell resistant varieties