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Saturday 27 September 2008

Berry Pretty Colours

I find it still hard to believe this beautiful tall shrub was just a tiny sick stick, when I rescued it from a nursery sell out a few years ago. It was labled Chinese Cotoneaster. When I look that up on the web it doesn't seem to match my friend here. So I'll call it "mystery" Cotoneaster (I'm fairly sure it is from that family .. maybe they would deny him ? LOL)



It is an all season shrub to me. Beautiful blooming in the Spring .. nice dark green shiny leaves in the summer and very drought tolerant .. then it's magic starts in the Autumn with gorgeous fat dark purple berries that have ripened from the red summer ones. Of course the leaves are remarkable in their colours ... just my kind of shrub .. low maintainence and a real "looker" at the same time !

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the perfect ornamental shrub to me. :)

Anonymous said...

I love the hint of red. Up here the Ruffed Grouse feast on our Cotoneasters. I am so glad to be back visiting blogs in my rare spare moments because I've missed your darling Sophie (oh how I adore her) and her loving buddy Emma.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Diane ! How are you ? .. I just had a quick peek at your latest pictures .. the gentleman on the dock was amazing ..
I was happy the grouse was safe in the tree ? LOL .. Bluejays and all sorts of birds love the berries in my garden : )
Emma has gotten much bigger and her nick name is "Bossyboots" she is so bossy to Sophie and Sophie puts up with it even though she is still way bigger than Emma .. kids ! haha

perennialgardener .. you would have laughed to see what it was like coming home with me .. when I say "stick" it truly was just that ! haha

Darlene said...

That looks like a beautiful ornamental shrub to me....no matter what its' name is.

Anonymous said...

I love it the way some shrubs change their colors. We were just looking around in our garden today and I think I will make a thread on this soon - not flowers - just shrubs. Have a nice week. Andrea

Anonymous said...

The berries are lovely, and I can see how they'd attract the birds. :) I planted some silver maple trees that were literally sticks many years ago -- they were "discards" from ones my Dad had planted, gifted by a neighbor. They are mature, full-formed, beautiful trees now -- there's much to be said for sticks! :)

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Nancy .. there is so much satisfaction in seeing what we thought were sticks grow into beautiful shrubs or trees .. I bet those maples are gorgeous !

Hello Andrea .. I think that would make a great post ! .. there are so many beautiful shrubs .. the burning bush family , well they are getting to that amazing scarlet colour around the city here .. talk about eye candy ! LOL

Darlene .. names are so quirky for some plants aren't they ? .. it can give you a totally different impression of how a plant will look or behave .. if it performs it is a winner with me : )

Anonymous said...

Joy ~ Try Cotoneaster acutifolia or Peking Cotoneaster... seems to match up with yours. Nice little write-up on bevscoloradogarden.blogspot.com - go to October 8, 2007 in her archives. Although it's commonly listed as acutifolia, it is correctly acutifolius - according to my "Hortus Third." (ZipcodeZoo.com got it right, as well.) Looks like a nice addition to the bird-friendly backyard/ Deb

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Deb !!! thank you so much girl !
As soon as I saw the "Peking" it knocked a few brain cells awake and I did check out Bev's blog with that post BINGO !
I know the birds love its berries and it is one easy care shrub that is really pretty too.
Thanks so much Deb : )