I am sad. Yesterday I pulled up this little tree never expecting that it could be a little baby of my Paul's Scarlet. Now it is too late, but I am curious, if I allowed it to be would it be true to its parent? As a matter of fact may be it is not too late, it is still not in a completely hopeless condition and the main root is not broken, just dried up a little bit. I will probably plant it back. Any advice, please?
Has foliage generally like one of the native black hawthorn species rather than that of the Crataegus x media cultivars such as 'Paul's Scarlet'.
Yes. I thought that may be the leaf shape will change in a more mature tree. Since I have never seen any other Hawthorns but my Paul's Scarlet around is it possible that it is its baby after all, not being true to the parent?
A bird brought it in. maybe from a nearby wetland (the native hawthorns and crab-apples tend to occur in wetlands). There might be numbers of them in the area, in natural areas where you have overlooked them as native brush or have not seen them for other reasons. Or there is a planted one within flying distance that you are not aware of. The flowers are white and the fruits are black, the only time they stand out for having warm coloring is when the leaves turn less-than-shouting shades of orange and red in fall. This assumes you did in fact pull up a seedling and not a root sucker. I don't know if black hawthorn is ever used as rootstock for the common commercial cultivars and if it is likely to sucker from the roots, away from the main stem.
Thanks. I am sure it is a seedling. I even was surprised how long and strong root it has, longer than the top part. I planted it in a deep pot and will keep it inside for a couple of weeks until it regains its health. Despite of a very harsh treatment (pulling it up) and after that being left bare rooted for 20 hours, it is already doing quite well.
Your root description sounds like that of a sucker. A seedling will have a cluster of fine branching below the ground, if nowhere else near the top of the ground, dating back to when it first came up and was tiny. Not that this has any bearing on what kind it is, what you might like to do with it etc.
Interesting opinion. Curious what in my root description sounds like that of a sucker to you? Have you ever pulled up a Black Hawthorn seedling growing in a natural environment, in well drained, sandy soil, to be sure that it "will have a cluster of fine branching below the ground"? I did, so I know that it has a very long tap root branching along its length, instead. Unfortunately, I can't take a picture to show you because it is already planted. As for how suckers look like I know it all too well, not from any kind of description by others, but from my own experience, having a lot of suckering plants growing on my property. Is there any scientific research supporting your statement? I would be glad to read it.
