Thursday, August 11, 2011

A berry good morning

Another photo from last Sunday morning. These are pyracantha berries at a neighbor's house. I like them because they're orange and I'm used to seeing the red variety; there is a red cotoneaster nearby, similar to a pyracantha but with smaller leaves and no thorns. I would like one of these in our yard, but I've done nothing about getting one.

I didn't get the focus quite right, but I like the picture anyway. Click on it to pyracanthate.

Seeing the bush covered in berries makes me think of fall. I wonder if it flowered and produced its fruit early this year because of our unusually warm and dry spring?

I did a post two Decembers ago about the differences between pyracantha and cotoneaster, with photos of each. Click here if you want to see it.

14 comments:

  1. We have a large cotoneaster tree and althought it is handsome, it does create a fair amount of mess, at various times of the year.

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  2. We had pyrachantha at our house on Long Island when I was a kid. Saw it most places I lived later in the Northeast. Then had cotoneaster at our house in Connecticut. You seem to have many of the same things we had in New England. Brings back great memories.

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  3. Are you wanting Fall already? Usually, about this time, I am dying for it. But for some odd reason, the heat hasn't gotten to me yet. I must need it for my old bones.
    m.

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  4. I don't think I've ever seen a cotoneaster- remind me to have a look...

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  5. Pyracantha is actually edible if cooked and made into a jelly.....I'm sure Ken would love to experiment with this after all the pears!

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  6. What's wrong with the focus? It's a lovely photograph. Are those edible??

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  7. My favorite type of cotoneaster
    is the variety "horizontalis"
    aka Rockspray. It stays quite
    small, and as the name suggests,
    does well in rock gardens because
    of its low growing habit. It's a
    lovely ornamental ground cover.

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  8. When I was landscaping my home in Illinois I planted 6 large cotoneasters in the frontyard. My horticulture professor told us since the berries were reputed to me edible, he had once decided to try it. He did not encourage us to do the same!!!

    I love the fact that both plants produce very colorful berries that do attract wildlife.

    Your photo with the waterdrop is fabulous.

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  9. Think the photo is lovely!
    Folk wisdom says that if the bushes have lots of berries and they ripen early it is a sign of a hard winter to come....

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  10. jean, I wondered about that. But what the birds don't get of this one simply falls to the ground outside their yard. No fuss, no muss.

    mitch, when I moved here from California I had the same experience. A lot of the vegetation here reminds me of upstate NY where I grew up.

    mark, I still want summer to linger for a while, at least through our vegetable harvest. Then I'll be ready for fall.

    evelyn, if we remember, we'll show you the one here.

    kristi, if you read his post today you'll get your answer!

    starman, kristi says they are. I didn't know.

    writer, my idea when I took the photo was to have different berries in focus, but the camera's got auto focus and the manual override is very difficult to use. That's one reason that I want to upgrade to a digital SLR...

    sheila, sounds interesting!

    mary, I like the orange berries, and I can see this plant from my den window. And thanks!

    n&a, that's what Ken was saying yesterday...

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  11. So, where in upstate NY did you grow up? Maybe there are even more crossed paths in our pasts!

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  12. mitch, I grew up in Albany. I did have a friend who lived in Brooklyn and I spent a little time there. On the F line, near Ocean Pkwy around McDonald and Ditmas. Circa 1981.

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  13. The birds love these berries Walt. I have to plant some myself here where I live on the coast of Delaware. Thanks for the reminder.

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