Holly good idea to have a few berries

THERE is a good crop of ornamental berries brightening all our gardens this autumn. In our garden a few holly berries started appearing on the tree during the summer and while those on the cotoneaster took a little longer, the stems are now covered in lovely orange-red fruit.

Both the cotoneaster and holly were in the garden when we moved here almost 16 years ago. The holly was a sorry-looking stick planted in the centre of the lawn and the cotoneaster was a small shrub growing against a wall.

The holly we moved to the back of the garden, luckily since it is now a tall tree where our cat sits watching the birds balancing just out of reach on the nearby telegraph wires.

Despite the small size of our garden, it is good to have found space for a tree. It gives height and structure to the space and being an evergreen, a source of colour throughout the year.

The berries are a bonus since they don't always appear, but the shiny dark green leaves are always there and I love cutting them at Christmas for the wreath we put on the front door.

I also bring a few stems indoors, although I remember reading somewhere it is supposed to be unlucky. As well as providing a climbing frame for the cat, the tree also supports a white-flowered Clematis montana which cloaks its branches in blooms during May.

Our holly tree is the simple Common Holly, Ilex aquifolium but there are many other varieties of this one holly species alone to choose from when looking to plant one, including several variegated types.

I.aquifolium Argentes Marginata (female) has silver-margined leaves, while the confusingly named Golden King (female) and Golden Queen (male) have golden marked foliage.

Most hollies are either male or female and need to have a nearby partner for good crop of berries to be produced, I suspect this is why ours crops so erratically. More unusual varieties include Bacciflava (female) with yellow berries, Ferox (male) with spines on the surface of the leaf and the variegated type Ferox Argentea (male).

Cotoneaster is a wide-ranging family of prostrate ground-cover shrubs, wall shrubs and tall trees.

Ours grows against an east-facing wall where it has formed a strong, dark brown trunk from which grow many long, arching stems that begin life thin, pale and downy and gradually darken with age.

I don't know its species or variety but wonder if it could be Cotoneaster fanchetti, which has deep orange rather than red berries. The leaves are small and clusters of white flowers open from pink buds in late spring.

The stems are easy to train against a wall as they are flexible while young but they need to be tied along strong wires to keep them in place.

Ours grows along horizontal wires and into the mass of other wall shrubs that exist on the wall and which include climbing hydrangea, ivy and virginia creeper. However, for gardeners who prefer rather more order in their garden, this type of cotoneaster is perfect for training into a neat fan shape.

Hollies and cotoneaster are easy plants to grow, both coping with any soil in sun or partial shade.

Plain-leafed hollies with also grow in full shade but variegated varieties are best in a sunny spot.

Wall-trained cotoneasters don't need to be pruned but they can protrude some way from the wall if left and may need to be pruned back to stop stems intruding into the space of other plants.

Hollies can be trimmed to keep them in shape, especially necessary when grown as a hedge, and can be cut back drastically if needs be.

Specimens grown as trees in a shrubbery or semi-wild garden can be left to grow as they want, with branches removed only when access is required or they are dead or diseased.

Horticultural show

THIS is a reminder that the Ancient Society of York Florists holds its final show of the year tomorrow in the Conference Hall at Askham Bryan College from 11am to 3.30pm. Admission is 50p per person and there is plenty of free parking in the nearby car park.

The society is the oldest existing horticultural society on Great Britain and has had a run of unbroken annual shows for the past 236 years. Anyone interested in joining the society and helping with organising the shows is very welcome; a willingness to be part of a team determined to keep the society going is all that is required.

Further details from Arthur Robinson tel 01904 631866 or see him at the show.

Garden news

THE Askham Bryan College (ABC) Gardening Club is holding a talk at Askham Bryan College on Tuesday starting at 7.30pm. The talk, entitled "Care and treatment of lawns", will be given by Andrew Iveson from Lawn Care Services; it will be held in the Conference Hall. Tickets at the door are free to ABC Garden Club members and £4 to non-members. Those wishing to join the club can do so on the night; annual subscription is £15.

Gardening TV and Radio

Sunday, November 7

9am, Radio Leeds, Weekend In The Garden. With Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

Noon, Radio York, Down To Earth. Presented by William Jenkyns. (Repeated at 5pm).

2pm, R4, Gardeners' Question Time. From Northumberland with Bunny Guinness, Matthew Biggs, John Cushnie and chairman Eric Robson.

Tuesday, November 9

8pm, BBC2, Gardens Through Time. In part two of the series, Diarmuid Gavin and Jane Owen explore the mid-Victorian gardens of 1860, visiting Chatsworth and Biddulph Grange and trying out a surviving example of the new invention of the time, the lawnmower.

Friday, November 12

7.30pm, BBC2, Hidden Gardens. Chris Beardshaw helps to restore Agatha Christie's one-time garden at Greenway in Devon. (Rpt).

8pm, A Year At Kew. In the penultimate programme of the series, the heating system for the water lilies breaks down and Kew welcomes the biggest arrivals of the year.

8.30pm, BBC2, Gardeners' World Roadshow. Monty Don and team are at RHS Garden Harlow Carr in Harrogate to offer advice to local gardeners. (Rpt).

Updated: 16:26 Friday, November 05, 2004