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Learn how to prepare hawthorn berries for planting by following Monty Don's step-by-step video guide. Monty gives tips on cleaning seeds, checking for viability, and the need for a chilling period.autumnMore advice on propagatingHow to grow plants

I can't really let May pass without mentioning the hawthorn (aka Crataegus monogyna). It is after all the May tree.For those of a mystical bent it carries more folklore and strange stories than many trees. It's all bound up with spring, rising sap

Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a field hedge near my house. A hedge consisting of about 60% hawthorn, with other shrubs added to make up the difference. At one time it was laid, trimmed and maintained but today just two trees remain

the problem long-term but deals with the aphids in the short-term.Spray the tree with thiacloprid the moment you spot any aphids. Small numbers are far more easily tackled than large, rapidly multiplying infestations.apples, crab apples, cotoneaster, hawthorn

flowers for sustenance, and flowers need bees for pollination. But it's important the flowers you grow provide the food bees need.Most double flowers are of little use, because they're too elaborate. Some are bred without male and female parts, while

Growing native plants is big news these days, but what is a native plant exactly? Well, it's not just a plant native to our country. According to the Natural History Museum, if you want to grow native, you need to grow plants native to your postcode

the observations I made of the changes in plants' growth the further north we travelled. A classic example was a laburnum we spotted that was only just coming into bloom. It wasn't just laburnums. The hawthorn trees became less easy to recognise; their annual rate

appears to be a change in its foodplant preference from the very restricted box tree to hawthorn, apple, honeysuckle and others. We've got a rather straggling honeysuckle trying to grow over one of our fences, but this specimen was on Clematis armandii

I might move house this year. It’s very early days, but the possibility of having a bigger garden is sending my plant-collecting gene into overdrive. I currently grow plants in my small, shady courtyard garden. But after four years of this, I long

plants, but Euonymus alatus was probably the first. Hailing from China and Japan, it is slow-growing, and deciduous. The greenish-white flowers appear in spring and, for much of the year, it is a green, innocuous-looking shrub.However, in autumn