hawthorn roots near to the house

[roger ward]

I have planted a 12 foot hawthorn tree 10 feet away from a house in clay soil. I intend to limit its height to 15 feet. Was this unwise?

[Littlesparrow]

I haven't heard of Hawthorn being a problem so I would have thought it would be O.K. It is usually a good idea not to plant any trees near or over drains in case the roots seek out the moisture.

[The Woodman]

In my opinion, no. Hawthorn has benign root system, usually well within the radius of the crown.

Enjoy it.

[roger ward]

Thank you for your reasurance. Much appreciated.

Roger

[Kayleigh]

On the housing estate where I live someone had a 200 year hawthorn hedge growing on their plot the hedge was left in place when the houses were built about 40yrs ago.
The garage had substantial subsidence with big cracks all the way through and had to be pulled down and 30ft deep foundations and steel girders were put in and the garage was rebuilt.
I asked the people that own the house what had caused this amount of damage she said the 200yr old hawthorn hedge.
I was shocked to hear this, they have had to kill all the roots of the hedge the stumps are left in place.
We are all on heavy clay here..

[tom00_uk]

hawthorn hedge next to the house here, no root issues from it,

[paddy]

Also, not had any problem from roots of a hedge of hawthorn, dogwood, etc planted in a very narrow space. It's also quite easy to restrict the size of it through pruning if you want to. I would have thought the tricky thing about being close to the house may be the thorniness though.

[tom00_uk]

my only problem with it is i cannot stand the smell of it when its in bloom, smells like hundreds of cats have had a wee below the window

[paddy]

Originally Posted by tom00_uk

my only problem with it is i cannot stand the smell of it when its in bloom, smells like hundreds of cats have had a wee below the window

Really? I always think of ice cream.... but then a girlfriend once told me lapsang souchong tea tasted like bacon, which put me off it for years....

[nightshade]

When the very old (several hundred years) cottage that my grandfather had lived in was demolished they also grubbed up the three foot wide Hawthorn hedge. I went along to watch as it held many happy memories for me. The roots were all very neaty tucked under the crown, although the soil was a little dry but no buried treasure that I could see. They did find a few odd things in the ledges of the kitchen fire/bread oven.