At What Age Does a Washington Hawthorn Bloom?

Washington Hawthorn Basics

• Washington hawthorn is native to the eastern part of the United States, from Maine to Florida and west to Missouri. Hybrids have extended its range. The small tree grows 25 to 30 feet tall in an attractive spreading form. A member of the rose family and cousin of the apple tree, the Washington hawthorn is one of the last spring-flowering trees to bloom. June flowers give way to bright red berries and persist well into winter. Its distinctive leaves provide a flush of fall colors in crimson, gold and bronze. Trees prefer well-drained soil and part shade -- their natural environments are stream banks and the edges of woods.

Challenge

• Because the Washington hawthorn is a small tree and tolerates air pollution, it can be a good choice for an urban yard, however, in addition to its slowness to bloom, it also brings some hefty challenges. Those lovely flowers that provide a bridge from the early-flowering trees and shrubs and the early-summer flowers are, in polite parlance, malodorous, that is not everyone appreciates their odor. Thorns grow up to 3 inches long on trunks and branches, and the plant has a tendency to form thickets. It is one of the more resistant hawthorns to cedar rust, but it occasionally battles fire blight, apple scab and various insects.

Growing

• Provided you have a space away from walkways and children’s play areas -- and spend your outdoor time upwind in June -- a Washington hawthorn can make a dramatic addition to a landscape. If you prefer to grow your plants from seed, be warned that hawthorns hybridize freely with each other, so germination and its outcome can be unpredictable. Seeds in the red berries require stratification -- up to three months in a warm environment followed by a similar period in the cold -- and might take up to 18 months to germinate once planted. Under these circumstances, a nursery sapling might be the preferable way to start your hawthorn. If you can find one that’s two to three years old, you’ll cut down the time you have to wait for it to flower.

Flowering

• Like their apple relatives, Washington hawthorns must mature before they are able to bear flowers and fruit. To predict when your tree will bloom, know its age at purchase and its rootstock. A pure hawthorn might need five to seven years to begin producing flowers. Grafted trees shortcut the process by joining a hawthorn sapling to a half-mature rootstock. Grafted hawthorns can skip adolescence and bloom at age two or three.