hard to give you any advice.. w/o a picture...

on the one hand you claim no vigor... in green growth

but then you tell us it blooms just fine.. is vigorous in that capacity ...

something doenst seem right...

was it potted.. was it severely pot bound ....

was it ball and burlap???

what is your soil.. how do you water it ... how much sun.. did you amend the planting hole.. with what?? .... do you fert .... etc ....

you really havent given us much to guess about...

it would surprise me.. that if you move it.. it doesnt take off...

but what i really wonder.. is if you.. in the PROPER SEASON ... dug it up.. looked at the roots.. and simply replanted it.. might it not do the same in this location ....

pics?????

ken

Ken, thanks for responding

When we planted it was somewhat root bound, I typically "roughen" things up some but the following year w/o much growth, I started to wonder if I hadn't done enough.

It was potted in a 10 gallon container. We have alkaline soil (I know hawthornes prefer acid). We've got it on the drip in full sun till about 2. We amended the soil with peat moss to change the composition of it. There had been cottonwood roots nearby but my DH took those all out to the lot line (and there were a LOT).

The soil in that specific area was more clay then the rest of the yard that the PO had brought in a lot of planting soil. I've blamed it on that too but the one in the other house, was more sandy and we amended that with compost. I obviously admire a Hawthorne to give it a second try but I've grown weary of all the pampering and nothing.

I haven't fertilized that or anything else but this is the only thing that is so stagnant.

I just measured the leaves and they are 1-1.25" long.

It seems strange to me too that I would get the blooms and fruit but lackluster leaves.

I guess it's worth a try to take it out and examine the roots. If it looks root bound, I could take out my aggravation with the tree and really roughen it up and replant it. If it looks like it the roots were reaching out, perhaps it would be best to move it to another area and see what happens.

Should we replant/transplant it before it blooms in the spring.

You might perhaps help with another "problem" tree. We have a European Mountain Ash that looks wonderful and is growing and establishing itself quite well. We amended the soil a lot and have been feeding it "pickle juice" as we empty a container. Since we started the pickle juice we noticed the tree really took off (we thought of giving it to the Hawthorne instead to help it). The problem though is completely opposite of the Hawthorne, lush full leaves but absolutely no flowering or berries this year. It was planted just a few months before the Hawthorne.

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I bet it is the lack of acidity causing your problems. You MAY be able to fix it but think hard about if you wanna be doing that in ten years when the tree is triple its size and needs triple the area ammended.

Could be planted too deep I suppose and changing soil composition does strange things as far as water retention goes. I much prefer just planting and seeing if it lives. My lord, what if my metasequoia needs me to do this or that every year when its 90' tall! Also 10 gallon is a pretty big transplant for me. I guess it could be busy regrowing its roots.

Good luck!