My hawthorn doesn't flower

Barneysmom

HI, we have a long hawthorn hedge along our boundary and it's never flowered. I wonder if I grafted or planted a new piece of flowering hawthorn from our loacl park would it trigger the rest to do so? Thanks.

Kay_Peel

There are a couple of reasons why a hawthorn (and wisterias for that matter) might not flower for 20 years or more.

1. The hedge was made from seedlings rather than cuttings. You can get a cutting to flower within a couple of years but a seedling takes decades to blossom.

2. The hedge has been hacked back to the old wood rather than clipped. It can take many years for it to recover - although some bounce back within 2 or 3 years . You'll get a lot of leafy growth but no flowers until it's ready and that's that - or so I've found. On one side of me the hawthorn is too high for me to hack, so I've been unable to get at it and it flowers profusely. On the other side, I've shortened the hedge considerably and hacked it back - and haven't seen a flower for 10 years.

I've heard that tomato fertiliser can bring it into flower, but I haven't tried that. I've just left it for wild-life to colonise and run a rambling rose, clematis, ivy and honeysuckle through it. One day it will blossom, I'm sure - and so will yours.

:beer:

Barneysmom

Thanks you Kay, that made me smile. Mine is for the sparrows, it's very thick and they love it.
It's been cut for the first time this year a few days ago.
We don't cut it until we know for sure all the fledglings are gone.

10 years eh, ho hum, never mind, the birds love it anyway :cool: