Hawthorn top half dead?

colm_c

I planted a whole bunch of bare root trees for hedging earlier this year and most of them are doing well.

However two of the hawthorn I had given up hope on as they seemed be grey/dead, now have shoots from the near the bottom of the tree.

Should I leave them do their thing, or prune off the top where I it looks dead/grey?

The other hawthorns are doing fine.

The trees we 2-3 ft bare root if that makes any difference.

looksee

Yes, cut off about half way down and see if the wood looks dead inside. If it is green/white - ie living - then stop, but if it is dead cut a bit further down till you are just into live wood, it will soon catch up. I had some tiny silver birches, only a couple of feet high, and two of them got accidentally cut in half, but new growth - new leaders - have sprouted and they are catching up fast, all in a few months.

I find hawthorn is very resilient. It’s almost impossible to kill in my garden. It can withstand a lot of hard pruning. I would go down to a set of shoots and cut back hard above them, you’d be surprised at how quick it will bounce back.