Attracting Birds With Berries And Seeds

Mountain ash

The mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia) is a much-loved and widespread native tree of woodlands, moors, and mountains. As a result, it's extremely tolerant of exposed sites. It produces frothy clusters of spring flowers followed by distinctive berries that make it popular with birds. In fact, they can hardly wait for the berries to fully ripen before tucking in, so there won't be too many left for the winter. There is a choice of ornamental varieties in the Sorbus family that will provide berries in a range of colors, from ivory to white, yellow, and orange.

Bringing in birds with berries

To bring birds to your garden, plant any or many of the following shrubs with berries:

• Beautiberry (Callicarpa)                                    • Bilberry (Vacciniurn)

• Cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus)                   • Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas)

• Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster)                               • Elder (Sambucus)

• Firethorn (Pyracantha)                                      • Flowering currant (Ribes)

• Hawthorn (Crataegus)                                      • Holly (Ilex)

• Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium)                 • Privet (Ligustrum)

• Rose (Rosa)                                                    • Sargent crabapple (Malus sargentii)

• Snowberry (Symphoriccupos)                         • Viburnum tinus (Viburnum)

• Alder buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula)                • Barberry (Berberis)

• Bearberry (Arctostaphylos)

• Birds just love elderberries — the tiny clusters of dark berries that appear on elder shrubs after flowering.

Lovely love-lies-bleeding

Also called tassel flower, this annual plant is quite aptly named after its tiny, bright red flowers that appear in long, cascading, tassel-like clusters surrounded by green or red leaves. The grain-like seeds that follow often produce more plants, if the birds don't nibble them all first. Give this plant full sun, wind protection, and slightly below average amounts of water. Even in relatively poor soil, expect lovelies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus) to grow from 1 to 1.5 meters high, and to provide a long-lasting sea of dangling red strands from summer to autumn.

Pretty purple cone flower

Place this daisy-like perennial plant among your taller sunflowers for an eye-catching flower border. Purple coneflowers (Echinacea putpurea) will reach from 1 to 1.5 meters tall. They'll expand in diameter from 75 centimeters to 1.5 meters, so be sure to leave enough room between plants when planting. Purple coneflowers bloom from July to September, and there are reddish-purple as well as white varieties. The name derives from the conical purple or brown centre. This plant is drought and wind tolerant.

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Gardening With Rosier Roses

Everything’s coming up roses

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO COVER ALL the current and old-fashioned roses available, even in a book entirely devoted to roses. Although I've chosen to feature hybrid teas and climbers, you should have a working familiarity with some of the other rose groups. Here I've given some very, very basic descriptions and definitions.

• Alba Maxima is a large alba rose that blooms once a year.

• Alba — these are shrub roses, known to be fragrant and hardy. They grow from 2 to 2.75 meters tall. They have abundant green foliage but bloom only once.

• Bourbon — these plants are vigorous, but sensitive and fragrant. They will grow up to 2 meters high and may re-bloom. They can be trained to climb.

• Centifolia — also called Provence roses, these shrub roses will bloom only once but will provide huge flowers. The fragrant flowers are often seen in clusters. These plants range from 1 to 2.2 meters in height.

• China — these roses range from low to tall, have clusters or single flowers, and will bloom repeatedly They are not particularly

•Fantin-Latour is a vigorous centifolia rose with fragrant cupped or flat flowers in a delicate shade of pink.

•Floribunda — these plants are low growing, bushy, and hardy They may or may not have fragrant flowers, which can either grow singly or in clusters. These roses provide nearly continuous blooms.

• Eglantine hybrids — Eglantines produce fragrant single or clustered flowers on arching shrubs growing up to 4 meters. Look out for bright red hips in the autumn.

•Gallica — Gallicas are compact, hardy shrub roses reaching about I to 1.2 meters high. Their large, Fragrant flowers will bloom once per season. Special care for Gallicas includes watching out for suckers.

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Rose Maintenance And Rose Diseases

The only caution with cotoneaster is to plant it where it is to grow. Cotoneaster does not transplant cheerfully.

Deciduous varieties, such as cranberry cotoneaster (C. apicuiatus), offer a nice alternative to the evergreens. Cranberry cotoneaster has dark green, glossy leaves turning reddish-purple at the season's end. Its flowers are small and white, but profuse in mid-summer. It grows to only 1 meter high, but will spread to 2.5 meters wide.

Shrubs for hedges

A HEDGE SERVES AS A PREtty (and if it's thick enough, a prowler- deterring) boundary. Easy-to-grow shrubs favored by hedge-lovers include the ones I'm about to describe.

Common privet

I have no great love for privets (Ligustrum vulgare), mostly because they tend to be seasonally messy However, I have grown them for decades simply because they thrive in just about any soil, any place, sun or shade, never seem to contract disease, tolerate forgetfulness — you get the picture. You also will get dozens of little deciduous baby privets to keep or pull out, as the falling seeds seem to have a high birth rate. Should you want to make a really large hedge, plant these youngsters about 45 centimeters apart. Each heartily growing youth will reach about 1.5 meters high, although some grow as tall as 5 meters.

Privet is easily pruned, and some people do so to avoid the prolific, small, white flowers, which have a fairly unpleasant aroma. The flowers appear only for a short time in early summer, and pollinators do like them. When pruning young shrubs, make the shrub top slightly narrower than the broader base. This lets sun reach the base, promoting a preferred, bushy growth pattern.

There are several privets to choose from, including evergreens, and those are easily pruned and kept in small tree form. Simply put, if you want a shrub that ranks among the hardiest (and ranks highly with birds too), privets are for you.

Trivia...

Cotoneaster is so hardy, there are even cotoneasters that thrive by the sea, such as herringbone cotoneaster (Cotoneaster horizontal's).

Hedge cotoneaster (Cotoneaster simonsii) grows as a rounded

evergreen shrub eventually reaching 2 to 2.5 meters high and equally as wide. When the plant's pinkish-white flowers subside, round black berries will appear. Cotoneaster is hardy and has no special soil requirements. It grows well in clay and even in deprived, stony soil. Although semi-shade tolerant, planting in full sun will yield the best results as far as flowers and fruits are concerned.

Laurustinus

There's quite a choice of viburnums, including some with phenomenally fragrant white flower clusters. Some viburnums are evergreen, some are deciduous, and many are listed for general use. The evergreen laurustinus (Viburnum tinus) is brilliant for screens and hedges, reaching 2 to 4 meters high and almost as wide. Laurustinus leaves are dark green and the foliage adapts well to formal pruning. Its 7-centimetre-wide clusters of flowers are initially pink, later becoming white. It doesn't have the pleasant aroma of some of the other viburnums, but it does bear attractive, bright blue fruit. For informal hedges, pruning in alternate years is sufficient.

This shrub will tolerate a shady site, but if you want more flowers, you need to give it some sun. It's not fussy about soil — acidic or alkaline is fine. Planted near the sea, however, laurustinus' leaves may develop mildew.

Where it is marginally hardy, don't water laurustinus in late summer as this encourages lush growth that may not survive the winter.

Japanese holly

Japanese hollies (Ilex crenata) make attractive informal trimmed hedges. Densely packed leaves are dark green on a neat, rounded plant that grows slowly Usually about 1.2 meters high, this plant can reach 3 meters or be as short as 30 centimeter s.

I here are a fair number of varieties among the Japanese !lollies, and the Convexa variety is one of the best of he group for hedge use. Its berries are black and inconspicuous. This holly adapts to sun or semi-shade, and to almost all climates. It will even put up with some pollution. Although it will adjust to most soils, there is a definite preference for fertile, moist, well-drained soil.

II you want to prune Japanese holly into a formal hedge, do so after the new growth has matured in the spring.

Hedge cotoneaster

There are more than 50 species of cotoneaster, all with abundant small fruits that last well into the winter. The red, scarlet, yellow, or black ornamental fruits also attract birds, if you like a little wildlife. Some cotoneasters act as groundcover, others are upright, ranging in size from dwarf to 5 meters tall. The taller varieties are easily pruned to a desired shape.

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Flower Gardening Guide

Shade trees

WHEN YOU'RE GROWING TREES FOR SHADE you want to choose trees that spread out a bit, covering a nice wide area with their leafy branches. A tall, thin tree simply won't do the job. Here are some of my favorites. 

These elms grow big

Chinese elms grow quickly, sometimes 1.5 meters a year when young, to an eventual height of 12 to 18 meters. (Most elms grow much taller, reaching 30 meters. An inception is the mushroom-shaped camper down elm, which reaches 6 to 12 meters.) in general, are for large, sunny, well-drained sites where the dappled shade they provide is a pleasure during the warm season, yet doesn't impinge on the rights of sunlovi lig plants nearby They do need fairly regular watering.

Chinese elm

Elm varieties are plentiful, and include Scotch, white, cork, camper down, Dutch, English, rock, and fluttering. The American elm and the English elm, both once extraordinarily popular, have had continuing problems with Dutch elm disease, although semi-resistant strains have been developed. Your local garden centre can advise you on this, as well as recommend the elm best suited for your part of the country

Chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia), also called Chinese evergreen elm or lacebark elm, is often recommended for its hardiness. It survives nicely in poor, compacted soil, and sustains itself well in both heat and drought. It is also resistant to Dutch elm disease and the hungry elm leaf beetle, making it a super choice for the new gardener.

Do not confuse this sturdy, good-natured shade tree with the brittle Siberian elm, which is not recommended for gardens or street planting. Siberian elm is sometimes — incorrectly— sold as Chinese elm.

The laqered look

Chinese elm gets its "lacebark" nickname from its exfoliating bark. As the tree matures, the outer layer of brown bark sheds here and there, showing jigsaw-puzzle displays of pale yellow inner bark. The result is quite attractive. The leaves of the Chinese elm are rather pretty too, giving a dark green display in spring and summer, and changing to purple and pale yellow in the autumn. This tree may keep its leaves throughout the winter, or drop them, depending on how cold it gets in your neighborhood.

Hackberry

Also called the nettle tree, this elm-like tree is useful for both shade and ornament. Tiny I lowers appear in May, often followed by 5-millimetre orange-red fruit that later becomes dark purple. Birds love the fruit. Leaves on this tree, which reaches 18 meters high in its native America, are shiny, bright green on top and paler green beneath. The back is a grayish-brown with prominent warty or bumpy areas.

A lovely relative of the hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) is the sugar hackberry or Mississippi hackberry (C. laevigata). Like the hackberry, its bark has little distinctive humpy areas. Fruit, which follows rather insignificant May flowers, is tiny and turns limn orange to dark purple.

All hackberries are tough trees, growing well in city conditions or with their roots in ackish water. They grow best in continental climates with hot summers. In Britain 'hey usually form a smaller, multi-stemmed tree.

• Wide-spreading branches, colorful fruit, and a hardy nature make the hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) an excellent shade tree.

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Gardening With Ornamental Trees

LOWERS FROM BULBS are often the first harbingers of spring. Their foliage peeks up through the last melting layer of snow, bringing a bit of color and a promise of your great garden to come. In this chapter I'll explain how to buy bulbs and start them, and make some suggestions for plants that are simple to grow.

When is a bulb not a bulb?

YOU MAY BE CURIOUS about the difference between bulbs, rhizomes, corms, and tubers, all of which are often just called bulbs. The distinction is not extremely important, because growing methods are pretty much the same. In everyday conversation, you'll undoubtedly refer to all of these flowers as bulbs. That's fine. Still, I like to keep things straight from the beginning. It's so much simpler that way

True bulbs

True bulbs are usually rounded with a pointed tip, a round base, and an interior made of layers, similar to an onion. Mature bulbs — those that have been in the ground for more than a season — reproduce by a dividing process within the parent bulb. True bulbs include the allium (Minim), belladonna lily (Amaryllis), daffodil (Narcissus), grape hyacinth (Muscari), hyacinth (Hyacinthus otientalis), iris (Iris), lily (Lilium), scilla (Scilla), snowdrop (Galanthus), and tulip (Tulipa).

Corms

Corms are rounded, and are small to medium size. They're not composed of layers, like true bulbs, but are solid all the way through. After a season, corms may produce baby corms, or cormlets, around the parent corm. These baby corms may be very small — about the size of a pea. Each cormlet contains the ingredients to make a new plant exactly like the parent. The corn lily (Ixia), crocus (Crocus), freesia (Freesia), gladiolus (Gladiolus), montbretia (Crocosmia), and autumn crocus (Colchicum) are a few of the common plants springing from corms.

Rhizomes

A rhizome is a swollen section of an underground, horizontal plant stem. Roots grow from the underside of this stem, and plant buds develop on top of the stem. Plants growing from rhizomes include some of the irises, leopard lilies (Belamcanda chinensis), and cannas (Canna).

Tubers

Tubers are swollen sections of root. Tubers may be shaped like short sausages or be entirely irregular. Buds grow from the top of each tuber. Begonias (Begonia), buttercups (Ranunculus), dahlias (Dahlia), and daylilies (Hemerocallis) are grown from tubers.

A bulb is basically a plant's food-storage organ. It is a modified shoot, with layers of fleshy leaf bases and roots.

Bulb basics

NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT A BULB IS, and what it isn't, let's talk about how to start them in your garden. Here again, it's best to avoid just buying, digging, and crossing your fingers. You're much more likely to enjoy success if you make careful purchases and know ahead of time where your flowers will go.

Choosing bulbs

If you plant at the right time, a good-quality bulb will give you flowers the first year. Get the largest bulbs of each kind that you can, from a reputable dealer. Buy only bulbs that feel solid; never take soft ones.

Avoid bargain bulbs, whether half- price at season's end or advertised in magazines at very low prices. Bargain bulbs are inexpensive for a reason. Thai may be incorrectly labelled, undersize, improperiy stored or transported, or diseased. There is no saving when half of what you buil doesn't flower.

Before planting

Bulbs are a lot less fussy than many other plants about their surroundings, but you can't expect bulb roots to tunnel through clay. You paid good money for the bulbs, so put a little more into their bedding, and provide them with some fertile, light-textured soil to grow in.

Simply put, bulbs like to be in the ground. Plant spring-flowering bulbs in autumn, and summer-flowering bulbs in spring or early summer. Plant as soon as you get the bulbs.

If you're ordering from catalogues, order early If for some reason you cannot plant your purchases straight away, store them in an open bag in a cool, dry place.

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