Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Coralberry (Symphoricarpos x doorenbosii 'Amethyst')




Coralberry
Symphoricarpos x doorenbosii 'Amethyst'
(sim-for-ee-KAR-poss) (door-en-BOH-see-eye)

The color of the berries made me take a look at this plant at the nursery. This one isn’t quite ripe as the color deepens a bit. The pastel color is very effective and the plant looked much better than the Coralberry I have been growing which is actually a different species (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus). This hybrid is supposed to be much better branching and fruiting than some of its more scruffy cousins. It was developed for the floral industry in Germany. I have to rate this one for the more advanced gardeners or people with a large woodland garden. It does seem to have some deer resistance. My Coralberry was planted in sun and now is shaded by the Tupelo Tree (Nyssa sylvatica) I planted years ago. It has finally turned into a nice specimen. The fellow I bought it from said “it’s the nicest one I have seen”, and I thought ‘yeah, sure’. I must say after taking several years to really get going the tree does have the most fabulous fall color.

It looks like peak foliage color around here this weekend. The leaves have not been their usual brilliant selves. This rain we are getting is sure going to knock a lot of the leaves down.

Synonyms: 'Kordes', Snowberry

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