A berry good year for fruit bearers

There are some lovely berries about this year. This is mainly the result of the very wet summer we have had.

The berries have filled up with moisture, and swelled to great sizes. It is the same with apples and pears - some of the biggest I have ever seen.

Escallonia 'red cascade' has been fantastic this autumn. The berries are amazing, with an outer layer of fleshy skin that later reveals an orange inside that hangs down from the main seed.

These last for a long time, inviting the birds to eat them up, and scatter the seeds about.

This year there are so many seeds that we can hardly see the branches that they hang on.

The shrub also has bright autumn tints on the foliage, so it is well worth growing. It also sends out small bushes as runners, so you can give them to your friends.

A shrub that always has a mass of berries in autumn and winter is the pernettya. Berries can be red, purple, or white, on different bushes and it is evergreen, so lasts the whole of the year.

It is ericaceous, so does not like a chalky soil, but given acid land it is easy to grow.

As the plants are either male or female you have to grow at least one male plant, to fertilise the females.

Many roses have hips that are worth having when the roses fade. One of the most floriferous is rosa moyessii, the best being 'geranium'.

The shaped hips hang down just like little flasks. They are scarlet, and really increase the attractive nature of this rose. Its flowers are scarlet, all along the long branches.

The plant is very tall and pruning is very simple - just cut out a few of the long branches in the spring, to keep the plant to the size that you require.

Many of the cotoneasters are very good this year. Cotoneaster splendens has surpassed itself, absolutely covered with bright red berries.

At the moment this shrub has glossy green leaves, but they fall to leave the berries on the bare branches. This looks even better.

Eventually the birds will eat them all up through the winter months.

Many of the cotoneasters are covered with berries. Other good varieties include c. conspicua decora' and c. horizontalis, which has branches that look like a fan trained tree against a wall or fence.

There are not very many mauve berries, so the callicarpa really stands out.

The best one is called profusion, with mauve berries all over the stems.

The leaves also turn a purple colour later on, so this shrub is worth its weight in gold.

By Pat Edwards