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An ornamental shrub with a three-hundred-year history, the pride of gardeners is the common cotoneaster, and not only. Common cotoneaster: planting and care Decorative cotoneaster

In the pink family, to which all cotoneasters belong, there are many species of this plant that have excellent decorative properties and practical benefits. These include the common cotoneaster, which in its external characteristics resembles the brilliant cotoneaster.

Common cotoneaster: general species characteristics

Common cotoneaster in its natural habitat grows in the mountainous areas of the Baltic States, the European part of Russia, in the North Caucasus. It is listed in the Red Book and is considered a protected plant. Therefore, cultural forms with the same characteristics as a natural specimen have been created on its basis.

It is perfectly adapted to difficult natural conditions and poor soils. It can be found in areas where shale and calcareous rocks come out, on sandstones and gentle rocky slopes. He loves light and open space, which is enough in the mountains, where other plants take root with difficulty.

The cultivated ornamental plant common cotoneaster has been known since the middle of the 17th century. It is an upright, highly branched shrub. It usually reaches a height of 2 meters and has a wide rounded spreading crown, which can be easily molded in artificial landscaping.

Unlike cotoneaster brilliant common grows slowly, forming a slight annual increase. For 15 years of cultivation, it can reach one and a half meters in height and a meter in width.

In youth, the shoots have woolly pubescence, which disappears when growing up, and the branch becomes smooth. They are painted in a light brown color with time turning into a darker shade.

From spring to autumn, the shrub is covered with broad ovate leaves that are much larger in size than their relatives. They can be up to 5 cm long, 3-4 cm wide. On the shoot, they are held with a thin petiole and placed alternately.

The young foliage is painted in a light green color, eventually turning into a darker saturated shade. In autumn, it becomes multi-colored: orange, red, purple. At this time of the year, the common cotoneaster is especially attractive.

The upper part of the sheet is absolutely even and smooth, has a pleasant glossy sheen. From below a covering soft, felt. Large and small veins are clearly felt on it.

Common cotoneaster is a deciduous shrub, and with the onset of cold weather, its branches become bare. But they can retain red fruits, which contribute to the preservation of the decorativeness of the plant.

The fruits are formed in place of fallen flowers, which completely cover the shrub in June. Then, from the buds formed in the axils of the leaves, five-petal flowers bloom. They are quite small, no more than 3 cm in diameter, painted white with a slight pinkish color.

Flowers may not fall for 3-4 weeks. During this period, they are especially attractive to pollinating insects, which contribute to the formation of ovaries. Spherical berries tightly stick around the shoots, firmly holding on to them with the help of thin petioles. Usually they are located 2-4 pieces in a brush.

The decorativeness of the shrub is achieved due to the color of the fruit. At the time of maturation, they look like corals, as they become bright red and shiny. They are so close to each other that the branch does not seem green, but purple. The bend of the shoots painted in this way creates original outlines, and the plant looks even more beautiful.

Active fruiting of the common cotoneaster begins at the age of 3 years. Then every season a large number of fruits are formed on it, which stay on the branches for a long time and do not crumble even in winter. At this time, they become good food for birds.

Common cotoneaster: use in gardening and treatment

This type of cotoneaster can be used for decorative and medicinal purposes, as an effective preventive folk remedy.

  1. Landscape designers create hedges from it, placing it in a dense group located along one line. Since the plant has a highly branched tap root system, they are planted in a trench way in deep artificial ditches. Of course, in such structures, a shiny cotoneaster looks better, but an ordinary cotoneaster does an excellent job of protecting the site from uninvited guests.

In autumn, the living fence changes color and becomes a bright decoration for the site. It is able to favorably emphasize the stonework of the walls and the gray colors of the garden paths. Just like the brilliant cotoneaster, it is used to form borders arranged along artificial overpasses.

This culture looks good in a single landing. In this case, the bush is better to give a certain shape. It responds well to pruning and shearing. The slow growth of shoots allows you to do this only once a season.

The ability of this culture to grow on stony soils allows it to be used to create landscapes of the eastern, often Japanese, style. At the same time, it fits well into the composition, consisting of large gray cobblestones, conifers and bright deciduous trees.

  1. Another important function of the common cotoneaster is its use in folk medicine. Despite the fact that its berries are rarely eaten, they have a pronounced healing effect.

With the help of decoctions and infusions prepared on the basis of this raw material, acute and chronic gastritis and other diseases of the gastrointestinal tract are treated. Cotoneaster drugs help well with neurasthenia, stress and nervous disorders. They treat hepatitis, diseases of the liver and gallbladder. Drinks from cotoneaster berries help in the prevention of epilepsy in adults and children.

For medicinal purposes, not only fruits are used, but also young bark, green shoots, leaves and flowers of the plant.

Common cotoneaster is a plant that has decorative and medicinal benefits. Therefore, in the garden, he should take his rightful place among other cultures.

In any garden there are structural plants that serve as the basis, the frame of the whole composition. One of these plants is cotoneaster - please do not confuse it with dogwood! This is a bright and multifunctional shrub with spectacular forms, rich color of leaves and fruits, always decorative and hardy.

Cotoneaster (lat. Cotoneáster) is a deciduous or evergreen shrub, belongs to the rose family, literally means “quince-like”. In one place, with proper care, it can grow 50 years. Its miniature dense leaves change color depending on the season: dark green in spring, all shades of red in autumn. White or pink flowers can be single or collected in thyroid inflorescences, in some species - with a strong aroma. The fruits look like very small apples of red or black color, have no nutritional value, remain on the shoots for a long time, giving an extraordinary flavor to the plant.

The geography of growth of the main types of cotoneaster is huge - the Far East, Transbaikalia, the Caucasus, the Baltic States, Europe, North Africa. In total, there are almost 80 types of cotoneaster, of which 40 are widely used in landscape design, but in this article we will look at some of them.

Deciduous types of cotoneaster

Cotoneaster horizontalis (Cotoneaster horizontalis)

It is considered deciduous, has almost or strictly horizontal shoots and characteristic branches resembling the skeleton of a fish. The leaves are small, alternate, almost round, dark green, glossy. The height of the bush is 1 m, the width is 2 m. It blooms in June with white-pink small single flowers. The fruits are red, they remain on the bush for a long time.

Variety Variegatus distinguished by light green leaves with a white border.

Tiny Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster perocumdens)

A horizontal spreading shrub with very small glossy dark green leaves that turn bright red in autumn. Pink small flowers appear in June, and ripe fruits remain on the bush until the next growing season. Unpretentious, grows both in the sun and in partial shade.

Cotoneaster nanshan (Cotoneaster nanshan)

Grade Boer- a broadly branched, low shrub with shoots curved towards the ground, up to 50 cm high, more than 1 meter wide. Dark green, glossy leaves with wavy edges turn bright red in autumn. It blooms in May with large pink flowers, from which fruits with a diameter of 1 cm ripen by August. The bush is thermophilic, prefers sunny places, sheltered from cold winds. In frosty winters it can freeze slightly.

Willow cotoneaster (Cotoneaster salicifolis)

Variety Parkteppich- a fast-growing creeping shrub with shoots tightly pressed to the ground. The height is not more than 50 cm, the width is up to 2 m. This variety is considered conditionally evergreen, since its shiny green leaves hibernate on shoots, and new ones appear in spring. The change of foliage occurs almost imperceptibly. Lush white bloom in June. Numerous red fruits persist for a long time on the shoots. It is undemanding to soils, well suited for semi-shady and sunny places.

cotoneaster willowy on a slope in autumn

Evergreen types of cotoneaster

Cotoneaster hybrid (Cotoneaster suecicus)

Sort Coral Beauty- an evergreen undersized shrub with arched shoots spread above the ground. With a height of not more than 50 cm, it can grow up to 2 m wide. It has shiny dark green leaves. White flowers appear in May - June, and bright red fruits are kept on the bush until next spring. It tolerates urban gas pollution, but requires enriched, fertile soils. Grows well in partial shade and sunny areas of the garden. It looks very impressive as a lawn border or a low curb.

It looks very impressive as a lawn border or a low curb.

Cotoneaster hybrid on trunk

Cotoneaster Dammer (Cotoneaster Dammeri)

Grade Major- fast growing evergreen shrub. It grows up to 1 m in diameter - with a maximum height of not more than 15 cm. The leaves are dark green, white flowers appear in May - June. Numerous light red berries remain on the shoots all winter, giving color to the black and white picture of the off-season. It grows on any soil, in shade, partial shade, in open sunny areas. It is used as a fast-growing groundcover for the formation of continuous evergreen clumps.

Sort Moncreeper- a miniature ground cover evergreen shrub. Height 10–12 cm, grows no more than 80 cm in diameter. The leaves are small, leathery, light green. Blooms in June with white inconspicuous flowers. The fruits are round, carmine in color, ripen in October-November. It is undemanding to soils and landing site. Suitable for container gardening, rock gardens, edging flowerbed compositions.

Suitable for container gardening, rock gardens, edging flowerbed compositions.

Landing and care

● Ground cover cotoneasters grow in any corner of the garden and are undemanding to. But cotoneaster horizontal, like all its relatives, does not tolerate excess moisture. Therefore, when choosing a landing site, attention should be paid to the depth of groundwater, which should be at least 2 m, and the distance from the reservoir. For the same reason, horizontal cotoneaster does not need frequent watering, one watering per week in a dry summer is enough.
● The presence of a drainage layer in the landing hole is a prerequisite for the successful growth of cotoneaster. The size of the landing pit should be 3 times the size of the container.
● Depending on the landscape task being solved and the size of the crown of an adult plant, the distance between the bushes can be either 50 cm or 2 m.
● After planting, the plant is watered, the ground is covered with a layer of at least 5 cm.
● In subsequent years, cotoneaster can be fed with organic or mineral fertilizers at the beginning of the growing season. Summer top dressing with potash fertilizers will favorably affect the decorativeness of the bush next year.

The presence of a drainage layer in the landing hole is a prerequisite for the successful growth of cotoneaster.

● Cotoneaster can and should be cut, giving it the desired shape or height. The shrub tolerates pruning remarkably and grows quickly. It will be possible to start molding already in the third year of life, until this moment it must increase the vegetative mass. However, you can pinch sleeping buds for better tillering from the very first days. Four times per season is the maximum number of haircuts that will benefit the cotoneaster and allow the crown to become denser and more spectacular.

Ideas for using cotoneaster in the garden

Hedges. Of the tall types of cotoneaster, dense ones are created, and both sprawling and strict sheared forms are practiced. Such hedges very beautifully frame stairs, garden paths, serve as a lawn border or separate one zone from another.

- low deciduous plant, which is valued for its decorative appearance. The foliage of this evergreen shrub turns from green to red in late autumn. The shrub is actively used in landscape design, placing it in various compositions.

Common cotoneaster (Cotoneaster integerrimus)


Common cotoneaster distributed from the Baltic to the North Caucasus, under natural conditions grows on mountain slopes, sandy and limestone-rich soils. In garden culture - a rare guest.

The height of the common cotoneaster reaches 2 meters, the young branches are pubescent with pile, but then, as they grow older, they become bare. The bush has a compact round crown. The leaves are wide, shaped like an egg, the length of the leaves is about 5 cm.

The outer side of the leaf plate is dark green, glossy, and the inner side is gray and rough. White-pink flowers are collected in racemose inflorescences. Bright red large fruits ripen in autumn. This variety is resistant to drought and frost.

Cotoneaster brilliant (Cotoneaster lucidus)


motherland cotoneaster brilliant- Eastern Siberia. This upright growing deciduous shrub is densely strewn with succulent foliage. Cotoneaster grows up to 3 m in height. Young branches of a gray-brown tone at the edge, for the winter the stems become red-brown, with age the branches get rid of the pile.

The crown of young bushes grows slightly elongated, maturing, takes a round shape. Cotoneaster brilliant is a rather sprawling bush, the diameter of the crown of an adult plant is up to 3 m. The length of the leaves is from 2-6 cm, the width is 1-4 cm.

Leaves in the form of an irregular ellipse are dark green in summer with a yellowish inner side, and in winter they take on a reddish tint. Flowering shrub begins in May, lasts about a month.

The bush begins to bear fruit at the age of 4 years. It has beautiful, glossy black fruits in the shape of a ball. Most often, the shrub is used for planting hedges or borders. The brilliant cotoneaster has been known and cultivated since the beginning of the 19th century.

Cotoneaster horizontalis (Cotoneaster horizontalis)


This plant belongs to the prostrate types of cotoneaster. An evergreen shrub up to a meter high, its crown grows up to 2 m in diameter. The arrangement of its strong branches resembles a fish backbone.

The leaves of the shrub are round, glossy, green in summer, bright red in autumn. Flowering begins in May, small white-pink flowers delight the eye for 22 days. Ripening in September, bright red fruits stay on the branches until spring.

Cotoneaster horizontal is represented by two types:

  • Variegatus- a low shrub up to 30 cm, with a crown growing up to 1.5 m in diameter. On the green leaves of the bush, a white stripe runs along the edge;
  • Perpusillis- a dwarf plant (up to 20 cm), as it grows, the crown grows to a meter. Slow-growing bush blooms in June with pink flowers. At the end of summer, Perpusillis is covered with scarlet berries. Leaves are green in summer and turn burgundy in autumn.

Cotoneaster Dummer (Cotoneaster dammeri)


Cotoneaster Dummer outwardly similar to the previous, horizontal view. Under natural conditions, it grows in the highlands of China. This shrub has branches that creep along the ground, which allows it to reproduce spontaneously.

The shoots branch in the same plane and grow in diameter, not rising above 30 cm. The leaves of Dummer's cotoneaster are dense and small, the shape of the leaves is ellipsoid. In autumn, like many of the cotoneasters, the plant changes the green color of the leaves to red.

It blooms with red inflorescences, later bears fruit with coral-colored berries. Cotoneaster fruits can stay on the branches for a long time. This species has been popular since 1900. The most popular varieties:

  • Eichol h - up to 60 cm tall, with reddish-orange fruits;
  • Coral Beauty- up to 40 cm, with red fruits, large, but single;
  • Stockholm- tall, up to a meter, shrub with bright red fruits.

Cotoneaster pressed (Cotoneaster adpressus)


This is a short type of cotoneaster, growing up to half a meter. The diameter of its crown is a meter. Its branches, as it were, spread along the ground, the crown looks pressed to the ground. The leaves of the cotoneaster are small, round, light green, in autumn - scarlet. The species is slow-growing, reaching its maximum growth within 10 years.

Did you know? In Tibetan medicine, cotoneaster fruits, bark and leaves are widely used for medicinal purposes. Decoctions and infusions from different parts of the plant are used to treat skin diseases, nervous disorders and problems of the digestive system.

Cotoneaster multiflorus (Cotoneaster multiflorus)


The birthplace of the multi-flowered cotoneaster is the Caucasus, Central Asia, the western territories of China and Western Siberia. The shrub is tall, growing up to 3 m in height. It has curved thin shoots. Wide leaves in the shape of an irregular ellipse change color seasonally: in summer - green with a silvery sheen, in autumn - purple.

The inflorescences are small, white, the shrub during the flowering period seems to be powdered with snow. The fruits are large, round, bright red in color. The plant loves illuminated areas, due to the small number of the species, it is protected in reserves. In Europe, the culture is grown in botanical gardens.

Attention! Despite frost resistance, young plants need to be covered from frost for the winter.

Black cotoneaster (Cotoneaster melanocarpus)


Cotoneaster chokeberry works well in the middle lane. It is quite winter-hardy, in its natural environment it lives in the Caucasus, in the north of China, in Europe and Central Asia. The height of the plant reaches 2 meters, the branches are brown with a red tint.

Leaves are egg-shaped up to 5 cm long. The upper side of the leaf is saturated green, the lower side is whitish. Racemes with pink flowers, blooming in May, last up to 25 days. This culture has edible black fruits. Black cotoneaster has been cultivated since 1829.

Interesting! Various decorative accessories are made from chokeberry wood: souvenirs, smoking pipes, spectacular carved canes.

Pink cotoneaster (Cotoneaster roseus)


Cotoneaster pink distributed in India, Iran and Pakistan. Low, up to one and a half meters, shrub. Thin red shoots at a young age have an edge, in mature they become naked.