Which Plant For Best Berries ?

Oh dear Louise I can come up with several autumn fruiting shrubs but they would all need more depth than 2 foot...

Pyracantha ?? - but I have no idea how deep its roots go...I know there's a shorter growing one, I've taken a look in the RHS A-Z for the cultivar name: 'Harlequin'.

What about the Photinia davidiana 'Palette' that I have - I think that might be OK, as well. It doesn't get covered in berries, but does produce some - and it's very attractive.

Pyracantha is versatile and are perfect for an east situation

Ooops you just pipped me to the post there Spritz.

:-))

the only bush I know that I can guarentee will attract birds is my black current's and the birds are black birds

How odd, I had a cotoneaster for years and the blackbirds always ate the berries through the winter and I felt guilty getting rid of it, but It eventually got too big . It wasn't horizontalis, maybe they don't eat those??? I do have the lovely photinia palette but so few berries the birds have poor pickings:-(

The birds eat our rowan berries but not the Sorbus cashmiriana this sit and sit and, eventually the blackbirds eat them.

yes MG most birds eat the old mountainash berries in fact I would say that was the best but it is a tree .so that is not a contender.

Where did the RSPB say that birds don't eat cotoneaster berries? I'm surprised because it's on their list of recommended plants on their website, as follows, but perhaps they say something contradictory elsewhere.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/wildlifegarden/atoz/c/cotoneaster.asp

You could keep a hawthorn as a shrub since they get used for hedging plants, as well. But I know the robins in winter love my neighbour's large cotoneaster horizontalis, which also benefits the bees in spring. I find my berberis darwinii gets stripped of berries fast, but that's by blackbirds in summer rather than autumn. None are left by then.

I thought that too Elleme

Elleme and Moon grower, i've just remembered where i saw it and it 'wasn't' the RSPB site it was the book The Flowering Shrub Expert.
I'd looked at several places this morning and was getting my facts mixed up, so sorry.

I had thought Cotoneaster Horizontalis but it's actually too short - i need something that reaches about 6' but when i read the info on the plant it said there, " ...... a display of showy berries which birds don't find particularly attractive"

I don't like Berberis, so that leaves what ?
I looked at page 117 at their list of 'shrubs to encourage wildlife' and most of their suggestions are not going to be able to be pruned back to the 2' requirement.

Infact, they're doing the same contradictory thing about Hippophae when you read the text (birds don't like the berries).
This is annoying.

Stick with the RSPB list Louise

Don't you like the idea of a Pyracantha, Louise? The blossom is lovely, then the berries?

Yes i do Spritz but i know they can be monsters !!!
I've had lots of them before and this space i've got in mind just won't allow for such a big plant.

I'm going with the idea of Chaenomeles or Cotoneaster i think.

Husband keeps the one on the back wall very much under control. It looks great! I know they can get huge - the one with the red berries needs a drastic 'CHOP'. They do recover from hard pruning, though.

Chaenomeles? Can be a bit 'leggy', I think. Cotoneaster - great! Which one?

Haven't decided but it must be up to 6' and not too deep - only got the 2' available remember, so i'll have to be able to prune it back - if Horizontalis was taller that would be perfect because i could fan train it along the fence.

Well, I've got a self-seeded pyracantha growing in a brick wall, with very little root-space at all! It's been growing there for about 4 years and does very well for leaf and berry but has not grown very tall.

I also have a cotoneaster horizontalis which is a magnet for bees and whose berries are devoured each winter by blackbirds and thrushes (not that there are many of those around, sadly.)

Pennyfarthing, how tall is the C horizontalis now and the Pyracantha - do you mean that you have to prune it back to keep it to a restricted depth/size aswell or does the fact that it's got limited root space restrict it for you ?
The root space is fine here so i know it'd be rampaging all over this area, i've had them (Pyracantha) before and i know i'd be pruning it back continuously because they get far bigger than the available 2' depth that i have in the front of that area :-((

Hi Louise,
The cotoneaster is about 4 feet tall and the pyracantha is about 2 feet. The cotoneaster has been in for many years and hasn't been properly trained or supported so it has formed a small bush or shrub and grows outwards rather than upwards now!
I haven't pruned the pyracantha so it must be the limited rootspace that curtails it.
I am just about to plant a new pyracantha elsewhere in the garden to replace a honeysuckle. I know they are prickly and spiteful, but so beautiful and the birds love the berries. I'm going to train it horizontally against th fence and keep pruning back to short spurs.
Tell us what you decide!
Penny

AG magazine says Cotoneaster lacteus can be trained - take a look at that one.

Thanks Penny :-)
I've decided on a Cotoneaster rather than Pyracantha, maybe horizontalis or one of the tall ones.
I too will have to keep pruning back to short spurs though because of this 2' problem.

At least i've decided which i'm going for now - just to decide the type !

Thanks Spritz, these are the types i'll be looking at, have read-up on some of these taller ones.
It'll now depend on what's available locally won't it :-/

good luck Louise

Not with your mail-order habits, it won't! LOL.

Thanks Moon grower :-)
Spritz, are you implying i like plants ???
;-))

Nope. You are a true plantaholic, just like me! haha.

Anyway, if you want to do a GC/Nursery crawl (like a pub-crawl, only enjoyable), count me in!!

We must do it soon, how i love nursery crawls :-)))))))
(I like that phrase !)
Anyone else in this region want to join in ?

This whole site is plantaholics anonymous! If I was over your way I'd join in but I'm not. Have fun. :)

Oh, we will, have no doubts about that, Elleme....;-)

Elleme, you are SO right !