Nurseryman's guarded forecast about hawthorn? (9)
I believe the answer is:
mayflower
'nurseryman's' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'guarded forecast about hawthorn?' is the wordplay.
'guarded forecast' becomes 'flower' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'about' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'hawthorn?' becomes 'may' (may is a kind of hawthorn).
'flower' after 'may' is 'MAYFLOWER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mayflower that I've seen before include "Ship on which the Pilgrim Fathers sailed to America" , "Pilgrims' vessel" , "old ship" , "Famous Pilgrim ship" , "Famous vessel" .)