This has been an excellent year for ornamental berries, due to the warm, wetter summer in 2024, when the flower buds that led to this year’s berrying were formed, followed by little frost and rain this spring during flowering , and then good summer light and warmth to ripen the berries.

Botanists classify berries into a wide range of types – a true berry is a fruit formed by a single flower with seeds embedded in the pulp. Berries here, however, refer to horticultural usage – any small fruit, edible or ornamental.

Cotoneaster, a very robust member of the rose or Rosaceae family, whose abundant colourful berries , relished by birds, are botanically speaking an apple-like “pome”. New Feature

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Some cotoneasters creep, such as Cotoneast

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