How to Grow Hawthorn Herb

Growing from Seed

• 1

  Locate, or purchase, a supply of hawthorn berries. You can pick berries off a tree in your yard or purchase them from a local market or herb store. The fresher the berries, the better your chance of finding viable seeds. While flowers bloom in the spring, the berries are harvested in the fall.

• 2

  Take a berry and remove the skin. Inside you will find a seed.

• 3

  Drop the seed into a bowl of water. If the seed sinks, it is viable. If the seed floats, it is bad and will not germinate.

• 4

  Plant the seed in ordinary potting soil in a small container. The seed only needs to be planted just under the surface of the soil.

• 5

  Place the container outside in the fall. Hawthorn does not need to be germinated in hot, warm conditions like many seeds, so the container should not be left in a greenhouse. In the spring, you will see your hawthorn begin to grow.

Growing from Stem Cuttings

• 6

  Cut a 4 to 8 inch long portion of a stem with leaves off the tree. If you take your cutting during the growing season, usually from spring through the fall, a tip cutting will suffice. A tip cutting is cut from the end of the branch. If you take your cutting during the dormant season, or during the winter months, use a simple or straight cutting, which requires you to cut a portion from father up on the stem.

• 7

  Snip the leaves off of the bottom 2 inches of the stem.

• 8

  Dip the base of the cutting in an auxin compound or rooting hormone. Make sure some of the compound sticks to the cut area.

• 9

  Fill a small container with rooting medium. Rooting medium can be purchased at a local garden store and usually consists of a combination of peat moss, perlite and/or vermiculite.

• 10

  Create a hole in the rooting medium. Insert the cutting into the medium, making sure that the auxin compound does not wipe off while you insert the stem. Gently pack the rooting medium around the cutting.

• 11

  Water the cutting so that the rooting medium settles well around it.

• 12

  Transfer to a 4 inch diameter pot when the cutting has developed two or three roots at least 1/2 inch long.