Hawthorn Flowers

Hawthorn is ubiquitous with the English countryside, particularly in hedgerows. It flowers later than the blackthorn and can look equally spectacular as the blossoms thickly cover long curving branches of the last year’s growth. David Hockney famously painted a series of works featuring springtime hawthorn wreathing the hedges that line rural roads in Yorkshire (Hawthorne blossom near Rudston). However, it doesn’t blossom if the hedges are cut back over the winter months. Locally this means that this year is not as good as last year for these small white flowers, sometimes tinged pink, which provide sustenance for so many insects, and indirectly for the birds. And subsequently this coming autumn there will be fewer berries to feed the wildlife too. It is just a fact of country life that hedges need to be trimmed to keep the growth thick near the base so that they are effective barriers, and visibility is not obstructed for motorists.