6 best pyracantha
Late spring flowers, autumn-to-winter berries and year-round attractive foliage make pyracantha a winner, says – especially if you choose an AGM variety Graham Rice
PYRACANTHA is a four-way shrub – it has four separate features that combine to make it one of the most valuable, not to mention easy-to-grow, shrubs we can plant. This four-in-one capacity is especially valuable in smaller gardens, where every inch counts.
Feature number one is the dark evergreen foliage, which makes pyracanthas good background for summer flowers. Two is the creamy heads of white flowers that can cover the plant in May and June; these are followed by red, orange or yellow clusters of berries that, in the best varieties, drip from the plant like too much costume jewellery (feature three).
There’s also another, less obvious, feature. The branch structure of a mature plant – trained on a wall – combined with that evergreen foliage cover and the fact that the branches are armed with serious spines, makes pyracanthas among the most popular shrubs for nesting birds, especially blackbirds and thrushes.
With such a generous crop of berries, birds also depend on pyracanthas for food – just not until other, more palatable fruits have been eaten. So expect a long display of berries (from August in some varieties) before the birds move in.
Those spines also tell us that training a pyracantha on a wall or fence is the best way to cultivate it. This is not an ideal plant for growing anywhere that kids might fall into it. And while it’s true that pyracanthas make splendid specimen plants, they also need a lot of space (luckily, pruning is easy). So against a wall is the best site.
Which brings me to yet another valuable attribute: pyracanthas are
tough enough to thrive on fences and walls facing east and north, anywhere in the country. They’ll grow on west and even south-facing fences, too, but given that there are so many shrubs and climbers that appreciate a warm site, we’re better off saving those prime spots for the plants that really need them. Only situations in overhead shade should be avoided as this will result in feeble flowering and fruiting, and thin growth.
In the right situations, pyracanthas also make good hedges – not in a small town courtyard, but where you need to keep out livestock, perhaps, or have plenty of space (and there are no kids around to fall into the spiny branches).
The only problem with pyracanthas – aside from those spines – is that some varieties are susceptible to fireblight and scab. Resistant options are available, but in any case this is a small price to pay for an adaptable plant that easily satisfies both wildlife and gardeners.