AusBonsai

Hey folks,

I was at Ray Nesci's the other day and saw he had a few Washington Hawthorns for sale. One in particular had the most beautiful leaf coloration; it was salmon pink with hints of yellow and orange. I was very tempted to buy it but I hesitated because of the trunk structure. It was very straight and too thick to bend, it would only lend itself to a broom style unless I was willing to wait 15 - 20 years for a different tapered trunk.

Does anyone know if there are any Hawthorn around Sydney or NSW for sale or even growing in people's gardens?

Cheers,

Jack

There should be lots of feral hawthorns in the cooler areas of NSW. I know that the Canberra club members go and dig them in the pine forest and on farms and roadsides around that area. I'd start looking around the Blue Mountains area or southern tablelands. We have plenty of them around Yackandandah, in fact our landcare group are removing lots from an area along the creek to help restore the environment for native birds and animals. Some of our club members have got in ahead and taken some home.
I have found that the vast majority of feral hawthorns have straight, vertical trunks so you'll probably need to look at many before you find one worth the effort of digging.

I saw some in Blackheath last weekend, they possibly were the Washington variety as they had light bark. There were also some in Katoomba growing in a bushcare site. Some had little berries. I will upload photos soon