ONE PRICKLY CUSTOMER

I am often emailed pictures of unidentified plants discovered in gardens with the subject line ‘What’s this?’. Mostly the answer is: ‘it’s a weed; pull it out’. The latest ‘what’s this’ email from friend Georgie showed a prickly customer but not a weed. This one, I told her is a keeper. The plant in question is mahonia (Mahonia aquifolium).

Mahonia has the common name of Oregon holly grape, which actually sums up its story well. Native to North America (including Oregon) it has yellow flowers in winter, which are sweetly scented and appealing to insects including bees.

After the flowers (and especially if there’s been plenty of insect visits) the plant forms small, black ornamental berries, which could be described as grape-like at a stretch.

The leaves, which are spiny, resemble those of holly. They are glossy green for most of the year but are tinged with red in autumn (although the plant is evergreen). Putting all this together and you could come up with Oregon holly grape as a fair description.

Mahonia has cane-like stems that grow to around 2m high. A plus is that it grows happily in part or even full shade in a small, suckering clump. Cut back old stems to encourage new growth from the base.

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