hawthorn

Over the weekend I spent a bit of time with the last of the hawthorn blossoms. Tasmania has a lot of hawthorn hedges and in the Spring they are a sight to behold. So beautiful as you drive along country roads and see the fresh green foliage covered with creamy white blossoms. They seem to have a pinkish tinge to them, as you see in the top photo, and every now and again there is a dark pink bush amongst the line up of snow dappled green (the fairies like those ones the best, you know!) Its also known as the May tree in the northern hemisphere due to always flowering in May. 

These bushes are along our fence line and are quite old. They flower profusely every year and every year we are tempted by their Spring beauty to bring them inside but oh dear, they stink!! Its a really strong stench quite at odds with their frilly good looks and after a few hours someone has always had enough and removes the bunch to the compost heap! 

The hawthorn hedges were one of the things that lured me to Tasmania - they are beautiful when loaded with flowers; look lovely and cool in Summer as you drive between them along the roads; and then in Autumn and Winter they are bare with bunches of dark red berries looking good enough to eat.  Hawthorn is actually edible - in jams and jellies, liqueur and fruit leather, to name a few - and medicinal, being used mainly for circulatory system tonics and heart problems. It is also considered magical and it was considered bad luck to damage or cut the tree for fear of offending the fairies that lived in them. It was often planted near a house to protect from damage and wytches gardens all had at least one Hawthorn tree...... my children will tell you thats why I am nurturing two lovely young hawthorns in pots!!!  

Bei uns sind viele Weißdornhecken und ihm Frühjahr sind sie alle mit bluten bedeckt. Leider müssen die bluten alle am baum bleiben weil sie haben so ein stinkender Geruch das man kein Blumen Strauss damit machen will! Aber so schön sind die Büschen an die Strassen entlang mit ihre crem weise Blüten das ich sie doch alle heim nehmen möchte!!