Common Name - Red Hawthorn

Latin Name - Crataegus monogyna

Flowering Period - May

Care

Imported from Japan in 1997, this material is completing the circle. It is not indigenous to Japan, having been exported from Europe many years ago, before the Japanese put a barrier on importing foreign plants. Unusually, it is not a grafted tree, but is probably an air layer on its own roots. Most examples of this material produced in this country are grafts, and it is virtually impossible to visually reduce the scar. This plant is very easy to grow, re-adapting to the English climate very happily. The leaves tend to be a bit larger than the wild, white variety, and the flowers can almost be regarded as gaudy, being full double red, with a white centre and white edges to many of the petals. This is not a variety that produces fruit as far as I can ascertain - it certainly doesn't for me!

I find it dries out fairly quickly, but this may be due to the open soil mix as much as the large leaves. The drying out does not seem to bother it a great deal; it still throws a dozen or so 25 to 30 cm. shoots throughout the summer. I wait until these reach the plant next to it on the bench (about 25 cm.) and then I prune. Removing these extension growths encourages more buds throughout the plant, some of which will be flower buds. If pruning is done too early during this extension, the effect on the plant is less, and the reaction is to make fewer new buds. I will usually cut this growth in the upper parts back to about 2.5 cm., while on lower branches I will leave 4-5 cm. I do not prune at all after late July, allowing all my trees free growth. This growth will be dealt with after leaf-fall in the autumn as part of the normal shutdown for winter.

The trunk is substantial, although there are several large open areas where branches have been removed. Each time I treat these areas by exposing the cambium and applying cut paste, snails climb the plant to eat the paste, removing it every time (See photo - traces of cut paste are still visible). On some plants this year I have tried pressing slug pellets into the paste in an effort to stop them.

The branches are, as yet, quite juvenile. The growth is so vigorous that small twigs are still not appearing, so I must attempt to slow the growth down. I will reduce the soil particle size, maybe put it in a shallower pot if I can find one suitable, and reduce the frequency of watering as much as I dare without risking the health of the plant. I will also cut out the spring feeds, but continue with the late summer and early autumn feeds. Fertilizing in spring makes the current growth more lush, while applying it in the autumn promotes the buds for the following spring, making them more numerous. I don't feed while the tree is actually in flower, so in May and June it will just get Maxicrop.

It is possible that without the energy provided by the large shoots, there might not be so many flowers. Most plants have to go through a number of phases to reach a particular stage. This one is at "branch phase", where the priority is to create the correct vegetative growth. Once this has been achieved, a switch will be made to "twig phase", followed by inducing flowers again.

Feed this year is a chicken based pellet available from most garden centres, alternated with Bio-gold. I give one of these as a solid feed on the first Saturday of each month, leaving last month's application on as well for another month. I also water every Saturday with a mixture of fish emulsion and Maxicrop. In September/October I soil drench three or four times with a solution of ash made from burnt leaves. This increases the potash level, and counteracts the acidity built up due to constant feeding through the summer.

Wiring is something I do not do with deciduous trees: I just clip and grow. The care I give generates an abundance of buds that precludes the need for wiring them.

Repotting is done as the buds change colour in the spring, about every two to three years. The pot was commissioned for the tree from Walsall Studio Ceramics, and is unusual for them in that it has a high gloss glaze, which I prefer for flowering trees. The flowers make this quite an eye-catching plant to have around, but this particular specimen still has a very long way to go before it will ever appear in any exhibition. It also does not get a favoured spot in the garden, but is grown against a West-facing fence. I turn it and all my trees 180° every Sunday. The spots in full sun are reserved for the more mature trees, although given space I would not shade it at all. I do not give this plant winter protection from cold - only from wet if I can fit it under a plastic roof I have in the garden.