I should add other junipers may also serve as the alternate host. I have seen it on Juniperus scopulorum up here in MN.

Nope, no problem, only with junipers, and Crataegus crus-galli is almost resistant to that problem. It defoliates many other species but crus-galli i have never seen it defoliated or even infected next to a completely bare downy hawthorn defoliated by the same disease

Thanks for more details on the problem, and the report of experience with the resistance of the Crataegus crus-galli.

Your friend shouldn't plant a crataegus any where she would have to mow around/under. While I'm not familiar with the crataegus variety you mentioned, as a rule they are rather thorny (mine have 2" thorns) and unfriendly to people mowing around them. That said, they are gorgeous small trees that add spring blossom and winter fruit interest.

FataMorgana

Yes I've been injured quite badly by hawthorns a few times. Mostly always the same tree too! Those thorns really mean business. Of course, you've got "Crusader" so you shouldn't have to deal with thorns.

On a side note, should any of you ever get stuck badly by a thorn from a non-thornless Crataegus variety, you may as well just go to the doctor and get it looked at. You're going to have to anyway.

+oM

Crataegus crus-galli inermis is thornless.

I limbed up my mother's Hawthorn, so nothing was shorter than 6ft. Not sure of her variety, was one of the Arbor Society giveaways. It did eventually die of the rust and my abusive trimming (like I planned!!). That thing was dangerous in a small yard. Spikes were over 3inches long, very sharp.

It did harbor the apple-rust, so the rust kept going back and forth between the hawthorn and her red cedar trees behind the house. Probably started in the neighbors old apple orchard, which was not sprayed anymore. None of them looked really awful, just singed in spots. Mom sprayed for a while, then cedars got way too big. Seemed equally healthy without the spraying. I was surprised at the fair looks on all the trees, in spite of the disease.

I found it interesting that so many trees will host the problem, which you would not suspect. Old style crabapples appear to be good hosts sometimes. Not bred for resistance like new varieties. The hawthorns are wild up here, cedars have a hard time staying disease-free, even with spraying. I am a hawthorn disliker, cut them where I find them to prevent that thorn problem.

Actually, cedar rust only hurts the rose family of plants such as crabapple and hawthorn and does not really affect the juniper host itself in any way.

Congrats to all, who made it through in a contented manner, to this day after Christmas.

Hope all found some, if even the smallest bit, of Joy and contentment through this holiday season.

Interesting to read the understandable, frustrations so many have suffered with the 3 inch long hooked thorns found on so many of the thorn producing, hawthorn varieties and cultivars.

The nursery owner I asked to find my friend's desired thornless variety hawthorn, told me that none of His suppliers distributed either the thornless, inermis 'Cruszam' cultivar or my desired 'Frans Fontaine' hornbeam trees.

Fortuately the Femrite tree growers located in Oregon posted both those trees on their availablility list, which they had updated on December 19.

My local nurseryman has indicated, that if all goes as planed, those trees should be arriving, in bareroot condition, this upcoming February.

Reports, I have recently read, indicate that bareroot hawthorns are a little difficult to bud, so I am wondering if it's best, at the time of delivery, to let the nursery pot-up this bareroot hawthorn, and care for it untill its buds swell; before my friend and I try to plant the tree.

Still, I wonder how long my friend will want to keep the tree, if its spring, week long, bloom display stinks as some reports I've seen indicate.

When a modern gobbledygook cultivar name has "zam" on the end it means the plant was introduced by this company.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lake County Nursery - Crusader