Of the 50 or more species of cotoneaster, a large number are tall deciduous shrubs with red or black Autumn fruits. Thus, they may be thought of as slender, thornless hawthorns.
But some species are truly evergreen and producers of red berries in Autumn. There are, generally speaking, three types of evergreen species.
Three Types Of Evergreen Species
Cotoneaster Salicifolius “Willow-Leaf”
First comes the willow-leaf cotoneaster, Cotoneaster salicifolius, and its kin. This tall, slender shrub is 20 feet long, spreading widely like a large Spiraea vanhouttei.
It is somewhat similar to firethorn but more slender and thornless. The leaves are narrow, oblong (willow-like), and wooly white below.
The June-appearing flowers are small, white, in large corymbs, somewhat in the manner of Spiraea vanhouttei. From September to zero weather, there are many flat clusters of small, deep-red fruits, like pyracantha.
The plant is normally hardy in central New England, and only in very cold (or very open) Winters does the foliage burn or drop.
The variety C. salicifolia floccosa is much more wooly white than foliage. So slender is the willow leaf cotoneaster that it is much more easily trained on walls than is pyracantha.
Cotoneaster Henryana
C. henryana seems equally hardy: when mature, it reaches 15′ feet, with downy gray leaves below and above when young.
The flowers and fruits are similar to willow leaf form, but the leaves are twice as wide as mountain laurel. It has the largest foliage of the evergreen species and is seldom seen in the trade.
These two shrubs do not wholly take the Ware of pyracantha, but the slender, pliable branches are more pleasant to touch.
Although the fruits are small (the size of BB shot), the flat clusters are abundant on mature plants. These two plants are most desirable as hardy shrubs for red, winter fruits, and evergreen foliage.
Low-Growing, Compact Species
The second group includes dense evergreen shrubs with small, rounded leaves (similar to the foliage effect of a box) and red fruits.
Cotoneaster Microphylla “Rock Spray”
The most dwarf is the rock spray cotoneaster, C. microphylla, a tiny-leaved plant of loose habit to 3′ feet. The little leaves are dark, shining green, downy gray below.
The tiny, white flowers are usually solitary, followed by tiny, scarlet fruits, also solitary. The effect is that the partridge berry suddenly becomes a bushy boxwood-like plant.
The variation C. microphyllus thymifoliusis is more dwarf in habit, with narrower leaves, like those of common thyme (with two to four red fruits); the variety C. microphylla glacialis is very depressed, bearing pinkish flowers and intense red fruits.
This form is particularly like a partridge berry that has become a shrub. This species is hardy to more than zero cold, and any sunny spot that will produce lawn is suitable.
It is practically a small-leaved, dwarf box with red fruits. It is the best small evergreen shrub I can suggest for rock gardens.
The Bearberry Cotoneaster
C. prostrata makes a bush wider than high, with nearly round leaves. The effect is like a box crushed flat by winter snow, or our bearberry raised higher from the ground.
The white flowers are borne two to three in a cluster, with the usual fruits solitary or two to three.
It is truly evergreen, while C. horizontalis is frankly deciduous in early winter. C. dammeri, Bearberry cotoneaster, is even more bearberry-like; its slender brandeis fall flat on the ground and roots as it goes. The leaves are dark green, shiny, and a little paler below.
The small, white flowers are usually solitary, as are the red fruits. When better known, these two species will compete with bearberry as one of the best evergreen shrubs for evergreen ground-cover use in sunny places.
Cotoneaster Horizontalis
The third group is C. horizontalis and its kin. These should be excluded from this list, for in regions of deeply frozen ground and zero temperatures, the leaves fall off in late November; hence they are semi-evergreen. However, in milder climates, they are truly evergreen.
The most common is the rock spray cotoneaster, C. horizontalis, with horizontal spreading branches that are much forked.
The flowers are pink, mostly solitary, and the red fruits are as large as small peas. The foliage often turns red-orange before dropping, and the fruits also drop with severe frost.
The variety C. horizontalis perpusilla is more dwarf with smaller leaves. There is also a variety of C. horizontalis wiltonii in the trade.
Creeping cotoneaster, C. adpressa, is similar, pressed flat to the ground, often rooting. The fruits are larger and ripen earlier (even in September), but only experts can see much difference in these two semi-evergreen species.
Little-Known Species Worth Growing
Cranberry cotoneaster, C. apiculata, is more erect, the fruits larger; Red-box cotoneaster, C. rotundifolia, is an erect, semi-evergreen, box-like type to 10′ feet.
The leaves are round and dark green. Flowers are solitary and pink; the red fruits are twice the diameter of C. horizontalis.
The shrub is perfectly hardy, but the foliage and fruits drop after a severe frost. Simon’s cotoneaster, C. sintoni, is very similar, with dark green foliage; the flowers and fruits are borne two to four in a cluster.
Cotoneaster Franchetti
The Franchetti cotoneaster, C. Franchetti, a 10-foot shrub, is a downy twig and leaf with small, thick, oblong leaves and pink flowers in flat clusters of five to twelve; the orange-red fruits are in flat clusters.
It is merely late deciduous, not as evergreen as the willow leaf species.
Cotoneaster Pannosa
C. pannosa that rises to 6′ feet is very slender of twig and downy white. The foliage is downy white below and very smooth above.
The small flowers are white, in clusters of six to twenty, with little, dull-red clustered fruits. This is also like willow leaf (the flowers white) in effect, but the leaves drop after a sharp frost.
Thus we have four semi-evergreen species related to C. horizontalis and two that are more like a willow leaf, as the fruits are clustered.
Oil from Shrubs
According to the American Nurseryman, two shrubs that grow in Texas and nearby states can be used as sources for drying oils. Perilla and Stillingia sylvatica, or queen’s delight, and even the Chinese tallow tree, are oil-bearing plants.
The shrubs should be cultivated if the oil is to be used. The whole seed of queen’s delight contains 30 percent oil, while its roots give oil, resin, and glucoside. The seeds of Sebastiana have an oil content of 37 percent.
44659 by Stephen F. Hamblin