PICK OF THE VERY BEST: COTONEASTER
These versatile shrubs are great for wildlife, says Graham Rice
IF there’s one thing you most definitely get with cotoneasters, it’s choice. Yes, I know, the flowers are almost always white and the berries are usually red. But they range in height from a few inches to the size of small trees; they can be neat and compact or widely spreading; they can be bushy, mounding, weeping or ground covering – or tall and imposing.
Deciduous or evergreen, with large or small foliage, there are cotoneaster varieties for containers, rock gardens, raised beds, mixed borders, hedges and for growing as bold specimens. A few are variegated.
Soil and situation? Well, on the whole they are not fussy. “So what’s the catch?” I hear you ask. The truth is that there are one or two drawbacks, but these are easily avoided.
A few are invasive (see overleaf), but the answer is simply not to plant these – there are plenty more, after all. Caterpillars have become a problem for one species (see overleaf), but again, just don’t plant that one.
Cotoneasters are members of the rose family, along with pyracanthas, hawthorn and many other useful garden shrubs and trees. The flowers are small, white or blushed, and carried in clusters; these are followed by berries that are usually red but occasionally yellow. Some of the deciduous varieties have attractive autumnal leaf colour, too. They suffer from fireblight, as do related plants, but in my experience this rarely proves problematic.
There are a couple of odd things about cotoneasters. Although they’re very popular with bees, some species are in the unusual position of not needing to be pollinated to make berries. Generally, there’s genetic variation in seedlings, if only a little. But many cotoneasters, with no pollination, make berries containing seeds that are genetically identical to the parent plant.
This means that one plant can produce thousands of identical seedlings – as if it had been propagated by cuttings. The invasive Cotoneaster
bullatus is a widespread example – the fact that it always produces plenty
of seeds, even in years when pollinators are relatively scarce, is one major reason for its invasiveness.
Another odd thing is that the familiar variegated variety we’ve known for centuries as C. horizontalis ‘Variegata’ now turns out to belong to a different species altogether. It’s one of the most popular shrubs we grow – and everyone got the species wrong!
Having said that, cotoneasters are indispensable. They look great and are excellent for wildlife: bees love the blooms, birds love the berries – and I love the lot.