Sadly a lovely mature hawthorn in our front garden blew over partially a
couple of weeks ago during the storms. It's just finishing blooming now,
and I'm wondering what I can do immediately with it; the branches are
blocking a door.

My immediate thought was to lighten the crown quite a bit, taking off the
lower hanging branches. I don't know if it can be pushed upright, what
do people think? Also the spot is difficult to get at with the tractor.
Since the trunk is only perhaps 15-20 degrees off of true, my thought is
it might be able to stay as is. I should mention that perhaps 10 years
ago it blew over, but as it was smaller I was able to get it back into
place and stake it. The secondary stakes have been gone for 5 or 6 years
now, I thought it was solid...

Can I start this major pruning now, or would it be much better to wait
for high summer, or indeed winter? It's a bit inconvenient as it is!

Thanks for any advice,

-E



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

"Emery Davis" wrote in message
...
Sadly a lovely mature hawthorn in our front garden blew over partially a
couple of weeks ago during the storms. It's just finishing blooming now,
and I'm wondering what I can do immediately with it; the branches are
blocking a door.

My immediate thought was to lighten the crown quite a bit, taking off the
lower hanging branches. I don't know if it can be pushed upright, what
do people think? Also the spot is difficult to get at with the tractor.
Since the trunk is only perhaps 15-20 degrees off of true, my thought is
it might be able to stay as is. I should mention that perhaps 10 years
ago it blew over, but as it was smaller I was able to get it back into
place and stake it. The secondary stakes have been gone for 5 or 6 years
now, I thought it was solid...

Can I start this major pruning now, or would it be much better to wait
for high summer, or indeed winter? It's a bit inconvenient as it is!

Thanks for any advice,

-E



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

Its widely used for hedging and gets hacked almost to death and seems to
survive, its not know as quickthorn for nothing (the quick referring to
being always alive rather than speed of growth)

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

On 28/06/2013 19:02, Emery Davis wrote:
Sadly a lovely mature hawthorn in our front garden blew over partially a
couple of weeks ago during the storms. It's just finishing blooming now,
and I'm wondering what I can do immediately with it; the branches are
blocking a door.

My immediate thought was to lighten the crown quite a bit, taking off the
lower hanging branches. I don't know if it can be pushed upright, what
do people think? Also the spot is difficult to get at with the tractor.
Since the trunk is only perhaps 15-20 degrees off of true, my thought is
it might be able to stay as is. I should mention that perhaps 10 years
ago it blew over, but as it was smaller I was able to get it back into
place and stake it. The secondary stakes have been gone for 5 or 6 years
now, I thought it was solid...

Can I start this major pruning now, or would it be much better to wait
for high summer, or indeed winter? It's a bit inconvenient as it is!

Thanks for any advice,

-E



Can you winch it back upright and prop it?

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013 22:43:41 +0100, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"Emery Davis" wrote in message
...
Sadly a lovely mature hawthorn in our front garden blew over partially
a couple of weeks ago during the storms. It's just finishing blooming
now,
[]
Its widely used for hedging and gets hacked almost to death and seems to
survive, its not know as quickthorn for nothing (the quick referring to
being always alive rather than speed of growth)

Thanks Charlie, good to know it's hard to kill.



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013 23:00:51 +0100, David Hill wrote:

Can you winch it back upright and prop it?

I could try to borrow a winch, but I don't think I could easily get the
angle right. There's a 5 foot stone wall just behind it, that forms a
square, so the winch would have to be quite far from the tree.

I could try and push it upright, but as I said it's difficult to get the
tractor into the spot. I'd be tempted to double stake it with 45 degree
angle stakes, were I to push it back up.



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

Whilst we are talking hawthorns, I have a standard Crataegus
prunifolia which has been in place a couple of years. This spring
I have not seen any flowers at all, so it looks like no berries
to look forward to this year.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

"Chris J Dixon" wrote in message
...
Whilst we are talking hawthorns, I have a standard Crataegus
prunifolia which has been in place a couple of years. This spring
I have not seen any flowers at all, so it looks like no berries
to look forward to this year.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

Mine had all its buds blasted off by something as well, can't decide whether
its weather or disease. One of our pear trees is looking very poorly as well

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

Round here the bullfinches were out in force earlier, stripping buds off everything.

Everything is late this year. I'm not sure our hawthorn is yet in flower, and our fancy Crataegus sp (can't remember which one) certainly hasn't flowered yet - but it's always later than the hawthorn.

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013 18:02:09 +0000, Emery Davis wrote:

Sadly a lovely mature hawthorn in our front garden blew over partially a
couple of weeks ago during the storms. It's just finishing blooming
now,
and I'm wondering what I can do immediately with it; the branches are
blocking a door.

My immediate thought was to lighten the crown quite a bit, taking off
the lower hanging branches. I don't know if it can be pushed upright,
what do people think? Also the spot is difficult to get at with the
tractor. Since the trunk is only perhaps 15-20 degrees off of true, my
thought is it might be able to stay as is. I should mention that
perhaps 10 years ago it blew over, but as it was smaller I was able to
get it back into place and stake it. The secondary stakes have been
gone for 5 or 6 years now, I thought it was solid...

Can I start this major pruning now, or would it be much better to wait
for high summer, or indeed winter? It's a bit inconvenient as it is!

Thanks for any advice,

-E

As already noted they can be pruned back brutally and survive.

Depending on how far over it is I would have thought a lot of the roots
might have torn out of the ground, so reducing the amount of foliage might
be a very good thing to do, especially if it remains hot and dryish.

Firstly to note that I am not a tree surgeon :-)

However if it has blown over it is obviously carrying too much top growth
for the roots to hold in place.

So logically it should be cut back severely to reduce the overall height
to take the weight off the roots, and give them some time to recover and
get a grip.

If you cut it back quite a lot, you may be able to jack the trunk back
upright if you can brace a jack against a stake or some other fairly
immoveable object.

I assume it will be easier to straighten if it isn't very tall.

Cheers

Dave R

On Sun, 30 Jun 2013 18:01:37 +0000, David.WE.Roberts wrote:

Depending on how far over it is I would have thought a lot of the roots
might have torn out of the ground, so reducing the amount of foliage
might be a very good thing to do, especially if it remains hot and
dryish.


Oddly, there aren't any roots out. But as I said it hasn't really gone
over all that much.

Firstly to note that I am not a tree surgeon


Heh, nor I. Doesn't stop me though!

However if it has blown over it is obviously carrying too much top
growth for the roots to hold in place.

Very stony spot, I don't really know how much root its got, except that
it has a good top and I don't feed it.

Anyway will be hacking it once the flowers are completely finished.

-E

--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

On Sun, 30 Jun 2013 08:14:12 +0100, Chris J Dixon wrote:

Plant amazing Acers.

OK. I do a lot of this, in fact I potted over 50 good seedlings
yesterday. What's your interest, are you a collector, or a producer?

-E



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

Emery Davis wrote:

On Sun, 30 Jun 2013 08:14:12 +0100, Chris J Dixon wrote:

Plant amazing Acers.

OK. I do a lot of this, in fact I potted over 50 good seedlings
yesterday. What's your interest, are you a collector, or a producer?

Neither really, I just really like them and have as many as I can
sensibly (1) fit in my small garden. I wanted to share my
enjoyment, and so replaced an outdated sig line with something I
felt more comfortable with, and which didn't get any Google hits.
I do try to get to Westonbirt most autumns, which is a real
treat.

(1) Probably slightly more than is sensible ;-)

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

On Tue, 02 Jul 2013 15:21:39 +0100, Chris J Dixon wrote:

Emery Davis wrote:

On Sun, 30 Jun 2013 08:14:12 +0100, Chris J Dixon wrote:

Plant amazing Acers.

OK. I do a lot of this, in fact I potted over 50 good seedlings
yesterday. What's your interest, are you a collector, or a producer?

Neither really, I just really like them and have as many as I can
sensibly (1) fit in my small garden. I wanted to share my enjoyment, and
so replaced an outdated sig line with something I felt more comfortable
with, and which didn't get any Google hits.

Heh, good for you. I know what you mean, and I'm glad to see another
enthusiast here.

I do try to get to Westonbirt most autumns, which is a real treat.


I wish I could, but it's hard to do from here. It's fabulous is spring
too, but of course you know that!

(1) Probably slightly more than is sensible ;-)


You're preaching to the converted!

-E


--
Gardening in Lower Normandy