Go to the Loose and Leafy blog and you’ll find a great initiative. People from different parts of the UK, the USA, Europe and elsewhere have each chosen a tree, and have committed to writing about it once each month on their own blogs, sharing how it’s doing as the seasons change. It’s going to be fascinating following everyone’s trees. The project started in March, but it’s not too late to join in, so here’s my tree and my first post about it.
Obviously my tree is in Cornwall and, not only that, it’s in my own back garden.
I’ve recently planted a wildlife-friendly hedge. It includes common hawthorn, beech, field maple, dog rose and some scrambling field rose, and I’m going to follow one of the hawthorns (Crataegus monogyna). It’s never usually of course anything more than a small to medium-sized tree, and this particular one is right now very small, as I planted the hedge plants as bare-root ‘whips’, which ought to establish much better. Rather than just generally monitoring the progress of my hedge, I thought it would be much more interesting to follow this one in detail, to see not only how it grows and develops, but also watch what wildlife starts to take an interest.
My ‘tree-following’ hawthorn, in between its hedge partners
A traditional hedging plant (‘hawthorn’ is from the Anglo-Saxon ‘Hagathorn’, meaning hedge thorn), hawthorn and its close relative blackthorn are found in hedges and hedge banks in Cornwall (and across the UK, of course), where their thorns and dense growth have been used as a stock barrier for thousands of years.
Hawthorn is also known as May-tree, with its beautiful white blossom appearing in that month, brilliant for pollinators (apparently it is the only tree in Britain called after the month in which it flowers). The red berries (known as haws) that follow in the autumn are a treat for birds. My own May-tree won’t have blossom or berries this year, but it’s already pushing out its shiny new leaves in bundles of green energy.
Bundles of leaves emerging
And, as I’ve already painfully found out, it’s already sharpening its thorns! I’ll report back again next month on how my hawthorn is doing.
