# Washington Hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum)

> White June flowers, glossy red fruit that hangs into winter, and a thorny crown that shelters nesting birds.

Also called Washington thorn. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/washington-hawthorn/

![Washington hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum) red berry clusters on bare branches against a blue sky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/washington-hawthorn-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Cillas, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crataegus_phaenopyrum_HRM.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Small tree
- Mature height: 20 to 30 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 8
- Grows wild in: Stream banks, old fields and edges
- Native range: 19 states, north to [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA) and [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV)). Also recorded, not native, in [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC)
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Average, Dry
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: June
- Fruit: Haws, September to February
- First crop: 5 to 8 years
- Mature spread: 25 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Wildlife value, Fall color, Drought tolerant, Winter interest, Street tree
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Bird & Berry Hedgerow.

## Notes

Washington hawthorn is among the most disease-resistant of the eastern hawthorns and the most reliable in the landscape: dense, rounded, orange-red in fall and loaded with fruit that cedar waxwings clean off in late winter. The thorns make an impenetrable hedge. A street tree for a small lot, and a nesting tree for catbirds and thrashers.

## Size, growth and what to expect

A seedling Washington hawthorn bears its first fruit at 5 to 8 years, while a grafted tree often flowers heavily in its third year. It grows at a medium pace, roughly a foot and a half a year in its youth on an average site, which is the rate our growth estimator uses for it. It makes a low-branching tree 25 to 30 feet tall and 20 to 25 feet wide.

Flat clusters of up to 50 half-inch white flowers open in late spring. The glossy red fruit, about a quarter inch across, colors in September and hangs on through winter, when cedar waxwings, quail, turkeys and small mammals eat it. The dense branches shelter nesting birds behind straight thorns 1 to 3 inches long. The name comes from Washington, D.C., where it was reportedly first grown commercially in the late 1700s.

It grows wild from Virginia south to Georgia and Alabama and west to Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, in low swamps and river bottoms in the east and on mountain ridges farther west.

## How to grow Washington Hawthorn

Washington hawthorn wants full sun and any soil that drains, clay and dry banks included. It makes a dense rounded tree nearly as wide as it is tall, so plant it 12 feet from a building and, because of the thorns, back from paths and play areas. For a hedge, set plants 5 feet apart.

Plant a dormant sapling, bare-root or potted, between leaf drop and bud break, in a hole twice the root width and no deeper, flare at grade, native soil back in, mulch off the trunk. Stake only on a windy site and remove it after a season. Clean the seed from the fruit and sow it outdoors in fall a quarter inch deep. For a spring sowing, chill it damp for about four and a half months first. Sow it within the year, because stored seed loses viability.

Water weekly the first summer and in dry spells the second. Rabbits gnaw young bark and deer browse the tips until the thorns harden, so use a trunk guard and cage for three years, and wear gloves. Prune in late winter to lift the crown or shape a hedge.

The flowers can smell unpleasant, and the scent draws the midges that pollinate them. A newly planted hawthorn may add little the first year while it roots. Bloom comes in June, late enough to miss frost. It resists the rust and fire blight that ruin other hawthorns, though rust spots can appear where junipers grow nearby.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Crataegus phaenopyrum](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/crataegus-phaenopyrum/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Crataegus phaenopyrum](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=a861)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Washington hawthorn](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/washington-hawthorn/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Crataegus chapter, Lasseigne and Blazich](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Crataegus.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Crataegus phaenopyrum](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CRPH)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Crataegus phaenopyrum, Washington Hawthorn](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.131803/Crataegus_phaenopyrum)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Crataegus phaenopyrum, from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/crataegus/crataegus-phaenopyrum/)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Crataegus phaenopyrum](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/plant-profile/CRPH)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 9: Crataegus phaenopyrum](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242416349)
- [Native Plant Network propagation protocol: Crataegus phaenopyrum, Hoss 2005](https://npn.rngr.net/renderNPNProtocolDetails?selectedProtocolIds=rosaceae-crataegus-3062)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [How fast native trees grow: a year’s growth by species, soil and sun](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/how-fast-native-trees-grow/index.html.md)
- [Small native trees and large shrubs for a small yard, and how to place them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-native-trees-for-small-yards/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)

## Related

- We grow 12 other hawthorns (Crataegus): [all of them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/index.html.md?q=crataegus)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Cockspur Hawthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/cockspur-hawthorn/index.html.md), [American Plum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-plum/index.html.md), [Chokecherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/chokecherry/index.html.md) and [Prairie Crabapple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/prairie-crabapple/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Harbison's Hawthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/harbison-hawthorn/index.html.md), [Parsley Hawthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/parsley-hawthorn/index.html.md), [Green Hawthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/green-hawthorn/index.html.md) and [Table Mountain Pine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/table-mountain-pine/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Washington Hawthorn, add ?species=washington-hawthorn with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 3, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=washington-hawthorn&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Washington Hawthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=washington-hawthorn): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=washington-hawthorn): whether Washington Hawthorn can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can move it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Washington Hawthorn as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=washington-hawthorn (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Washington Hawthorn is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=washington-hawthorn (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Washington Hawthorn needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 1 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=washington-hawthorn:1
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Washington Hawthorn where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=washington-hawthorn&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Washington Hawthorn goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=washington-hawthorn&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Washington Hawthorn flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=washington-hawthorn