Berry Beautiful

The shortest day is past, the daylight is coming back and the first late winter flowers will soon be blooming in the garden. However, even at this cold and gloomy time of the year, there is still quite a lot of colour about. I walked around my garden this morning, and, as well as admiring the frost on the dead seed heads – always a good excuse not to tidy up in the autumn – there were plenty of bright berries adding colour to the borders.
I planted a boundary hedge of mixed pyracanthas a few years ago. I wanted something thorny to keep out intruders – deer, mostly – and I chose a mixture of varieties, partly as an experiment to see how they grew. The most colourful at the moment is Pyracantha Saphyr Jaune, with lots of small butter yellow berries. Despite the cold weather, they have remained relatively untouched by the birds, and they are adding a warm glow along the length of the hedge. They also looked good in the Christmas door wreath I made. The same cannot be said of the red berried varieties, most of which have been eaten. There are still some small orange-red berries on Pyracantha Saphyr Orange and some densely packed clusters on Pyracantha Saphyr Rouge, one of my favourites. They make a nice contrast, along with the larger red berries left on Pyracantha coccinea Red Column. The individual plants are knitting together into a thick hedge, with branches growing out at every angle, so they need regular trimming to keep them compact. Pyracantha is easy to grow in sun or partial shade in any reasonable soil, and, of course, it is covered in creamy white flowers in May.
The red berries on the Cotoneaster, growing against the cottage wall, have also stood up well to the weather and the wildlife. There are still plenty of large, blood red blobs covering the bush, looking like miniature rosehips. Cotoneaster are similar to Pyracantha, but without the thorns and equally easy to grow. They also come in various forms, for ground cover, growing against walls and fences and as freestanding shrubs the size of a small tree.
There are still a few of the unusual berries of the Callicarpa bodinieri to be seen. They are a bright metallic purple and you might have trouble convincing people that they are real, and you haven’t just stuck them on the bush for show. The plant itself is not very interesting, and best suited to the back of the border, hidden by flowering perennials during the spring and summer. When these have died down in the winter, you will have the surprise of the berries.
Hollies are another good berry plant for the garden, with the added attraction of shiny and sometimes variegated foliage. I found one red berry on my holly Handsworth New Silver, which is a lovely form, with dark green leaves with cream margins. As it is a female variety, it is supposed to be a good berry maker, so I assume the birds got there first, when I wasn’t looking.
There is not much to do in the garden at the moment, but it is good to have some time to appreciate the plants, which have been chosen just for this time of year. Add a few to your borders and make the most of the season.