Hawthorn bush

thenewoc

thenewoc

thenewoc

Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2012
Posts
10,088
Location
West Sussex, England
Would this be a good choice for a planter? I'm looking for something I can place on our path at one side of our property to deter people from using it as a cut through. Are all hawthorns prickly? Is there anything perhaps better, something that wont grow more than about 5ft and isn't too difficult to prune?
 
well as someone that has a hawthorn hedge that i have to maintain i would be careful because hawthorn does grow rather well , in fact luckily my newer nieghbour actuall prunes his side of it and does mine occasionally......well in season every week :) just wish the conifers on the other side were cut as well :(

just to clarify i wouldnt plant hawthorn, because of maintenance
 
Are hawthorns prickly? Why do you think they're called hawthorns?! They're great deterrents - basically impassible and smell lovely in the spring and early summer. Fantastic for wildlife too.
 
Dis86 said:
Are hawthorns prickly? Why do you think they're called hawthorns?! They're great deterrents - basically impassible and smell lovely in the spring and early summer. Fantastic for wildlife too.
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I wasn't sure if they all are or whether some varieties weren't.
 
Hawthorn is great for deterring people, we have loads of it. Birds go crazy in it. It's very tough so you'll need some good hedge trimmers. 2 sides of our property is surrounded by it and we've got through new trimmers every 2 years. We tend to hire professional ones now which works out cheaper
 
lookitsjonno said:
Hawthorn is great for deterring people, we have loads of it. Birds go crazy in it. It's very tough so you'll need some good hedge trimmers. 2 sides of our property is surrounded by it and we've got through new trimmers every 2 years. We tend to hire professional ones now which works out cheaper
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How often do you cut it back?
 
I think hawthorn makes great hedging, it's used all down the side of the road where I live. Any new growth is easy to trim but older wood is extremely tough. Birds love it for nesting and also eat the berries so I'd say it's a good choice but will need regular trimming to keep it tidy, once any nesting birds have left.
 
We've got a mix of hawthorn and blackthorn as the hedge between us and the next field, it's really good and thick and no one would ever think of going through it!

As others have said the old growth is woody and very hard but it's ok as long as you keep on top of the new growth. just make sure you leave it when it's flowering for the wildlife.
 
Fun anecdote, as a boy I managed to stab myself in the arm with a rather large hawthorn spike near the base of the plant. Felt like it thudded the bone, actually passed out. The one and only time I've honest to goodness fainted. Very good deterrent, not sure how they would grow potted as from what I remember they grow like wildfire. We had a hedge of hawthorn in the back garden as it backed off to playing fields (hence me trying to squeeze through it)
 
We have a gardener a couple of times a year to tidy the front garden up, equipped with chain saw for the shrubs on both side planted areas. Hopefully a medium sized planter will help to constrain the hawthorn from running wild which I'm sure it would if planted directly in the border up against the front of the house.
 
As others have said, hawthorn is great for your purpose. The only thing I'd warn is that you shouldn't plant it too close to your house as it takes a lot of moisture from the soil during its springtime growth. This can be an issue if its near the footings of your house, where it can cause minor heave/subsidence. We had this problem about 10 years ago and had to pull the bush out and install some rebar to strengthen some cracked brickwork.

So long as the bush is it's own vertical height away from your house horizontally (hope that makes sense!), you should be ok.
 
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