It has been said, mainly by myself, that I don’t like cotoneasters. This is not altogether true. Perhaps an exaggeration for the purposes of drama. In fact I quite like this one, and many of its ilk have engendered a smile of approval. What I do dislike are dusty, industrial hedge-trimmer massacred, generally neglected, supermarket car park Cotoneaster horizontalis. This one however is just fine. Not quite, but almost love.
Cotoneaster Almost Love
Off The Edge Gardening 
I imagine that any “dusty, industrial hedge-trimmer massacred, generally neglected, supermarket car park” plants (love the description!) might be unlikable. 😦
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Horrid! 😦
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I remember your unreasonsble disdain for Cotoneaster horizontalis. It doesn’t have to be: ‘dusty. Industrial hedge-trimmer massacred, generally neglected, supermarket car park..’ It can be growing up a garden wall and abuzz with bees in the summer. Then it can be graced with bright red berries and have ferns and Hesperantha coccinea growing prettily in front of it.
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Ha! I know you like it. I’m sure it looks lovely in your garden. Anything that you don’t like though?
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Oh yes. Hypericum, Symphoricarpos, that awful pink stripey Salix, that variegated Kiwi, Actinidia -something or other. Salvia splendens, Achillea, African marigolds, standard roses and any so-called ground- cover plants. Oh and the pink flowers on Spiraea ‘Goldflame’. That’s just for starters. And I am only teasing you about your unreasonable hatred of Cotoneaster. You see I have many peculiar prejudices of my own. Oh and by the way, I hate Pyracantha; the nasty, vicious thing that it is.
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Ooooh, your list is much longer than might, not too keen on hypericum either!
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There is nothing more cheerful in the autumn than the sight of a well tended cotoneaster covered with blackbirds (and other berry pinchers) pulling off the last of the berries before I’ve had a chance to look at them.
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Think of all the good you have done for the local wildlife!
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Those berries are so clear and red, like pyracantha! I actually do not like cotoneaster either, precisely for the same reason. They rarely get a chance to perform like they want to. Where they naturalize, and do not get shorn, they can be as colorful as the native toyon, but their berries are better dispersed rather than in isolated clusters.
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They must be the most abused of all plants! I have just googled “toyon” not a shrub I have heard of before, looks amazing!
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Toyon is not great for landscaping because it does not take to shearing or even pruning too well. I had several at home. They are live up near the ridges where there are not so many big trees to shade them. They are also known as California holly, and are the holly what Hollywood(land) is named for. Doves really like them, and they are pretty if there are no pyracantha or cotoneaster berries about. I would not plant cotoneaster because I know it has naturalized in other areas. It grew wild behind my Pa’s house in Montara, up in San Mateo County.
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Thanks for the info Tony, really interesting.
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I had forgotten about cotoneasters. Years ago wwe had them and they came in handy at holiday time for decoration. As I recall the needles are sharp though.
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