Our Trees - Hawthorn

. Hawthorn Creatagus Monogyna

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Natural History.

The prevalence of charcoal in the archeological records indicates that hawthorn must have been present in prehistoric times and possibly first arose in its present day form as a consequence of pre-historic forest clearance and pasture.

Hawthorn is one the the most important plants for wildlife, particular songbirds. Its attractiveness to

moths and its dense thorny nature offers both a safe nest site from predators and a ready supply of moth larvae as food.

Hawthorn is probably the most underrated tree species in these islands. Our site is enclosed by 800 metres of mainly hawthorn hedge and we have planted several hundred more trees, both in a new internal hedge and as individual trees throughout our wood. Unfortunately these new plantings, although of a native species were not of native stock.

Cultivation.

If using transplants then no special cultivation is required: see the general

When hawthorn fruits are eaten by birds, the seeds pass through the birds gut undamaged except for a softening of the hard coat, and these seeds will sprout the following spring. It is usually better to let the birds do the hard work and simply dig up the resulting seedlings and replant them where they are needed.

Otherwise, the best time for collecting fruits is in October: when they are fully ripe. The stones extracted from the fruits should be dried at room temperature.

The seeds will then need to be stored outside in moist sand for around 18 months or subject to the following stratification techniques:

16 weeks at 25°C followed by 15–18 weeks at 3°C;
sew the stratified seeds into the still-cool soil at the end of March or the beginning of April,
as any later and the warmer soil may induce a second dormancy.

Planting & Aftercare.

Please see the general You should definitely use gloves when handling hawthorn plants.

The outside of our boundary hedges are cut by a contractor with a tractor-mounted flail every 2 or 3 years. I cut the inside of the hedges by hand on a 4-year cycle. Different species of bird like to nest in different types of hedge: some like sparse, short hedges; others like dense, tall hedges. By cutting the inside by hand, I can vary the width and height of each section to provide the maximum variety in structure to attract the most species.

Hawthorn is by far the best shrub for a natural hedge and it should constitute at least 90% of the plants. If any other species are used then thought must be given to the relative rates of growth of the various species: to avoid the shading out of slower growing ones. For example Field Maple will be too vigorous and Holly will be too slow-growing.

Hedge planting should be in a staggered, double row with 18" gaps both between the rows and between the plants.

If the intention is to have the hedge maintained by laying then the trees should be left to establish for several years before any pruning is done. The aim of pruning is to encourage the main stems to grow to around ten feet as quickly as possible to allow the hedgelaying cycle to begin. Therefore only the side branches should be cut back; this will also make it easier (and cheaper) for the hedgelayer.

I never cut the hawthorn growing within the wood. They are now quite dense and bushy and are usually occupied in the breeding season by pairs of Great Tits Parus major.

Provenance.

When purchasing plants, I somewhat naively believed that a native species meant that I was buying native stock. Sadly this is often not the case. The only way to guarantee native provenance is to buy from approved suppliers. Substitution such as this is done because imported stock, in this case probably from Italy, is usually cheaper than that grown in the U.K.

Having said that, hawthorn is still hawthorn: the only difference seems to be that my plantings come into leaf around 4 weeks before the native kind. In an unnatural setting such as ours the relevance of native stock is probably not as great as on sites which were recently semi-natural woodland or where some particular associated fauna is being conserved.

I also wondered if this might actually have an unintended benefit. If the earlier leafing allowed moths to lay their eggs earlier, then the resulting caterpillars would coincide with birds nesting earlier due to Climate Change.

I tested this theory by beating the imported bushes for caterpillars, whilst the native ones were still bare. Unfortunately I didn't find any caterpillars.

Timber Qualities.

A very dense, heavy, even-grained wood. Not easy to split for green woodworking but good

for turnery, charcoal and firewood.

Enclosures & Hedgelaying.

Enclosures

The earliest extant hedges are those forming parish boundaries and were formed duiring the saxon period. Many more miles of hedges were planted during the enclosure of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Around 225,000 miles of hedgerow were planted in the central and eastern areas of England during the final phase of enclosures during the 18th centuary.. Every yard of the enclosure hedges had first to be protected with temporary fences of ''dead hedges", made of hurdles or brushwood, while the "live hedge" within them slowly grew sturdy enough to resist livestock.

Hawthorns are still called "quicks", from the old word "quick" for living, because they contrasted with the dead material used earlier. Young hawthorns were needed by the tens of millons for this work, and
each estate had its own nursery to raise them.

The enclosing landlords had to plan their permanent hedges several years ahead: two years to
the seedling stage; two more years to get a transplant; and then 10 years or so of growth before the hedge could first be cut and laid.

Hedgelaying

Selected sturdy shoots from the hawthorn's own rootstocks are partially cut through and then trained slant-wise so as to interlace with the neighbouring upright stems. The resulting new growth should be mainly (80%) from the cut stool, with the remaining 20% from the layed stem. If too much energy is available to the layed stem then it will not have died-off by the time of the next laying and insufficient new growth will develop from the cut stool. The result will be problems for subsequent hedgelaying operations when the old layed stems will need to be relayed (and/or partially buried to encourage new shoots) and the new stems from them layed as well.

A newly laid hedge needs an artificial framework of upright stakes and horizontal interwoven binding rods of hazel or willow, called "ethers" or "heathers", to make it stockproof. The principle being that if you can get your boot through a gap in the hedge then so can a young lamb.

Hawthorns regularly laid in hedges have an indefinite life. Nobody has kept any records, but from the rarity of replacement it is safe to estimate a life-span of 100 years, if not two centuries. No wooden fence can equal this, and a stone wall is far more costly.

Hawthorn's only real competitor is the post-and-wire fence: cheaply built and cheaply replaced, but; affording no shelter. Suitable wire was not available to the early enclosers; our landscape, and wildlife has benefitted immeasurably from circumstances that obliged them to enclose their fields with living trees.

Current Practice

Stockproofing can now be achieved more cheaply and easily through wire-mesh fencing. Laying hedges is done mainly for environmental and aesthetic reasons. Current thinking on trimming between relayings is that it is probably better done not more than once every two years and each time raising the cut approximately 15cms (6inchs). This ensures a steady growth whilst keeping the hedge under manageable control. Eventually (after 20-30 years) depending on actual growth rates, management objectives, etc., it will be approx 4m (12/13ft) high and will be ready for relaying, or coppicing depending on how the stems have matured.

The best time to trim is difficult: autumn cutting (ie Sept.-Oct.) does mean that you lose the fruit which is needed by by wildlife, but does have the advantage that it is easier to monitor the level of cut since the hedge should still be green after it has been trimmed. Late winter cutting preserves the fruit during the winter months but does mean that trimming is not so easy and the tendency is to cut off the whole of the previous season's growth.

The clearing, cutting and laying of farm hedges is strictly controlled by law. Farm hedges cannot be removed without planning consent; cutting and hedgelaying runs the risk of illegally endangering wild-birds and their eggs during the bird-nesting period: currently from the 1^st. of March until the 31^st. of July each year.