Bearberry Cotoneaster 'Coral Beauty'

Cotoneaster 'Coral Beauty' (Cotoneaster x suecicus 'Coral Beauty') is a living green carpet that catches fire with coral by autumn. The small, glossy dark green leaves stay on the shoots all winter, and scattered among them are bright orange-red fruits that hang on right through to spring. That scattering is exactly what gave the cultivar its coral name.

This is a classic ground-cover plant: at ten years it is only 0.5-1 m tall, yet it spreads to 1.5-2.5 m across, blanketing banks and slopes and cascading handsomely over retaining walls. In May and June the white flowers with purple anthers bring in the bees, and among creeping cotoneasters 'Coral Beauty' stands out for how heavily it fruits.

Key characteristics:

• What makes it special: The cultivar owes its name to the lavish scattering of orange-red fruits that look like corals; the berries are purely ornamental and inedible.
• Dimensions: Low and wide: at 10 years it holds a height of 0.5-1 m and spreads 1.5-2.5 m across.
• Hardiness: It takes frost confidently, down to -29 °C (USDA zone 5).
• Flowering: In May-June small but eye-catching white flowers with purple anthers open, and red fruits take over from them.
• Light: At its best in full sun or partial shade, where the fruiting stays abundant.
• Soil: It loves moist loams with sharp drainage, and takes chalky, clay and sandy soils just as readily.
• Watering: Water moderately; once the shrub has rooted in, it hardly asks for extra moisture at all.
• Care: Prune only if you wish, in mid or late summer; keep an eye out for aphids, scale insects and fireblight.
• Landscape use: A lush green carpet on banks and slopes, in rockeries, and it cascades handsomely over retaining walls.
• Origin: The cultivar received the RHS Award of Garden Merit in 1993.