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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

the young leaves were added to peoples' sandwiches; it supports at least 149 species of insect and the berries feed more than 23 species of bird; hawthorn is pollinated by dung flies and midges attracted to the mildly unpleasant smell and the fact

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

landscape.Native plants are much better for our wildlife than introduced ones. A native tree (such as oak or hawthorn) might provide food and shelter for 150 insects, birds and other animals, but an introduced one (such as Japanese maple) is often devoid

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

150 years. It feeds on the fruits, using its stylet mouthparts to suck out the juices, in autumn moving to the berries of yew, which also grows profusely on the chalk downs.However, during the 1990s Gonocerus was found, first, at Bookham Common

spinning wheel and fell asleep for 100 years.But I learned about a different type of spindle on a field trip to Kew Gardens, in the autumn of 1984. I remember the moment of revelation very well. At the time I was enrolled on a 10-week gardening course (my

and Their Haunts by the Rev. C.A. Johns, was published in 1862 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, on the back of his success with Flowers of the Field (1851). Both books were in print for over a century, and it's easy to see why.To start, Johns