Home › The Hawthorn › The Hawthorn: Glastonbury

The Hawthorn: Glastonbury

A selection having to be made for the borders and shrubberies, it will be proper to suggest that the Glastonbury thorn should be included in it. This is the variety that is said to flower on Old Christmas Day, and we have actually seen it in flower on the 6th of January on our cold land in the Valley of the Lea; but it has happened only once in the course of nearly thirty years. At Glastonbury and elsewhere in the west of England the event may be looked for whenever mild weather occurs at midwinter, and in that is to be found one of the points of interest attaching to this variety. Amongst other points of interest must be noted the fact that this variety produces a brilliant show of large golden-green leaves long before any other thorn shows the faintest glimmer of greenness. Therefore if there is a sheltered nook near the house in which a thorn may be planted with propriety, then the Glastonbury thorn is the very tree for that nook, because it will make a cheerful object in the view from the windows in those early spring days when new leaves and flowers are eagerly looked for as spiritual food to revive us from the depressions of the winter. The true story of the Glastonbury thorn, as told in the Gardener's Magazine for Dec. 21st, 1878, is much more wonderful than the legendary nonsense that is retailed in guide-books, and makes it appear that the tree came originally from the East, and established itself at Glastonbury in a natural way and without the help of any miracle. "Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery?"