Young Hawthorn Tree


Grew this young Hawthorn tree (Crataegus spp) from seed from my sister’s garden in Nanaimo. The hawthorn has beautiful flowers, and the berries are a favorite for the multitude of birds we have. Any leftover berries make an excellent medicinal tincture or tea to help ease a number of ailments. Hawthorn trees are found in many parts of Canada and people from Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron are known as “Haweaters”. The Hawthorn tree is relatively compact and grows well in the Comox Valley and could be a welcome addition to many urban or rural gardens.

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I’m amazed you grew this from seed! How old is the tree?

It is 8 years old. I had it in a pot for 5 years.

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That’s a beauty! I am wondering if when you transferred it from the pot to the ground how long it took to establish and take off? We had a Garry Oak in a pot for about 10 years which we thought was kind of bonsaid, but after a couple of years planting it out it shot up.

It took one growing season to establish after moving the tree from pot to ground. It flowered for the first time last summer, its second one in the ground. The pictures are from this year when it really outdid itself flowering. Lots of berries forming now

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I’ll bet if you save some seed folks would be all over it…I know I would!

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It is loaded with swelling berries right now so will see if I can collect some when they ripen. I would be happy to share some with you.

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I would absolutely love some…thank you!

Me too, it’s lovely!

please check in with me towards the end of August at Johnhastie@shaw.ca to see if we are able to get ripe seed before the birds clean them off. If we have seed we would be happy to share.

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Hi Lorna, I have a few Ripe seeds from the Hawthorn Tree if you are still interested. please reply to my email - Johnhastie@shaw.ca or Message me at 236-655-1444. cheers, John

Hi, I have a few Ripe seeds from the Hawthorn Tree if you are still interested. please reply to my email - Johnhastie@shaw.ca or Message me at 236-655-1444. cheers, John

Thanks so much for the seeds John and Heather! And for the garden tour. Loved seeing your place—you have a beautiful haven for sure! Will keep you posted on the seed progress.

Btw, if you want to send a private message to someone (I.e. you don’t want to publish your phone number or email so all can see) you can click on that person’s photo and you will see a little envelope icon. If you click that, you can then send a private message.

Thanks again!

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Hi Lorna,
I’m just wondering if you had any luck starting the Hawthorne seeds. I got some from the Hastie’s too and so far no luck getting them to sprout. Such a gorgeous tree I would love to get one growing.
Kelly

Hi Kelly! I’ve had zero luck as well…so far. In October-ish I planted one set of seeds inside in a pot and one set outside. No luck at all with those. Now I’ve got some planted in a little tree nursery area that gets regular water (that is well labeled :slight_smile: ). Fingers crossed… Any suggestions? Are you going to keep trying?

Hi Lorna and Kelly
I also had no luck trying to get the hawthorn seeds to germinate indoors last winter. The original tree was from a seedling that self seeded from the parent tree, so Lorna you might have better luck with the tree nursery approach.
My tree is in full bloom right now so should get lots of seeds later if we want to try a different seed batch.
John

Thank for keeping tabs John! No matter what, this is an interesting process and it’s building community, which is awesome :).