Hawthorn blossom

is this the 'cast not a clout till may is out' flower?

It is indeed :D

so which clouts are you going to be casting?....I for one am keeping my clouts firmly on, its still quite chilly :-)

I always remember the dabate being over whether you cast your clouts once the May blossom appeared, or once the month of May was over. The latter sounds much more sensible. I did go into Cambridge without a coat today :D

It's an old word for clothing, cognate with 'cloth' :D

Hi - been googling for hawthorn blossom, and came across yr page. I have never seen so much hawthorn blossom as this year. Any idea if/why this should be right?

I can only assume that the relatively cold winter and late spring has something to do with it. All of the spring flowers and blossoms have been compressed into a much shorter period than normal.

Aren't Hawthorn trees the prickly ones?

Hawthorn do have thorns, although they are not particularly fierce :)

There are hawthorns here that are reddish and quite stabby. They look nice, but will leave you requiring a blood transfusion if you try to trim them.

There is a pink version over here too (var rosea), but I think the one you mention may be Crataegus coccinea, which is a red-flowering North American species. Apparently, North America is where hawthorns have their greatest diversity :)

Too bad all of the diversity here is in the flora and fauna.

:D

hawthorn blossom which in past years was white is pink this year. Why might that be?