This tree is growing in Massachusetts, Z6a. I've never seen it before. Can anyone help ID? The upward arching branches remind me of Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) but I've never seen flower clusters like this. Thanks, Deb
Welcome dlbk. Looks like an ornamental Hawthorn. Such as Crataegus laevigata Paul's Scarlet. http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Cr...&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1276&bih=537
Hawthorn expert J. Phipps says (2003) that 'Paul's Scarlet' belongs to the hybrid Crataegus x media and that it is a crimson-flowered sport of 'Rubra Plena', "to which it is apparently constantly reverting back". See his Timber Press book Hawthorns and Medlars for additional discussion, and photos of 'Paul's Scarlet' and 'Rubra Plena'.
Well, that was an eye-opener. This is a bit (a lot) off topic, but I was trying to imagine why anyone would pick those two trees to write about in a single book. Now I see they're closely related, and there's even a Crataegomespilus grandiflora, a medlar hawthorn, which I found described as a chimera.
Oh sorry, I ment which of the medlar and the hawthorn for the graft hybrid. Isn't Laburnum always used as a root stock for +Laburnocytisus?