Bareroot Hawthorn Hedge Plants

Crataegus monogyna: Bareroot Hawthorn Hedging

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Hawthorn, known as quickthorn or whitethorn in some parts, grows into a pretty and impenetrable hedge in a hurry. Unlike many hedge plants, it is blessed with three seasons of interest. Spring boasts a froth of simple, white slightly scented flowers that stand out against the blackness of the wood. Summer is a mass of healthy, dark green, lobed leaves, and then autumn sees astonishingly red haws. In winter, the spiny silhouettes of the black branches look spectacular on a frosty day. It is extremely tough and easy to grow.

Features

• Sold as Bareroot whips and older plants ranging in size from 40-120 cm
• Final hedge height: 1 - 6m
• Soil: Just about any, except fully waterlogged or pure sand.
• Use: Stockproof, vandal proof, informal and farm hedging
• Single Row: plant at 3 per metre.
• Double row: plant at 6 per metre in a zig zag
• Colour: mid green leaves with white flowers and red haws
• Very tough, disease resistant and thorny

Growing Hawthorn Hedges

It is easier to ask: where won't Hawthorn grow?
It won't grow at water level in a swamp like willow or dogwood, or in pure sand on the beach like tamarisk and rugosa roses, and it will grow slowly in full shade compared to wild privet or hazel.

With that said, we have seen wizened old hawthorns growing:

• on a small raised mound in the middle of a bog less than one metre above the water
• on poor, sandy soil just behind a beach with no cover from the salt winds,
• in between buildings on industrial estates where it probably got three hours of sun in midsummer at most.

Spacing a Hawthorn hedge:

Standard country hedging: plant at 3 per metre, 33cm apart in a single row, or 6 per metre in a staggered double row, which has a W shape viewed top-down.

Hawthorn in your Garden

Hawthorn's charm is its informality and its virtue is its resilience. Once established, you will have a thick, wiry hedge that no intruder would care to breach. For this purpose, it is fine on its own, but for the most pleasing and natural look, it should be mixed up with your favourite country hedge plants, which you can design yourself or buy ready to go in our six-species mixed conservation hedging packs (these include Britain's most beautiful wild shrub, the Guelder Rose, Viburnum opulus).

It is a top choice as a specimen tree (ideal for small gardens) in particularly exposed, windy or coastal conditions, where it typically takes on a sculptural, gnarled shape that looks fantastic in winter, and we recommend the more ornamental Hawthorn varieties for this purpose.