Thursday, June 21, 2007

Variegated Rock Cotoneaster


Variegated Rock Cotoneaster
Cotoneaster horizontalis 'Variegatus'
(kot-on-ee-ASS-ter) (hor-ih-ZON-tal-is)
Rosaceae (ro-ZAY-see-ay)

There are only certain types of Cotoneaster that I like and this is one of them. Its delicate habit and colorful leaves are a pleasure to have in the garden. I find a lot of Cotoneasters coarse, prone to insects and maintenance intensive. This one is the complete opposite. Here it is growing with a ground cover I have been using a lot, Golden Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea'). I like it but some gardeners could find it a little invasive. I planted some with a red Weeping Japanese Maple and it looks nice but then I am a glutton for color. My Golden Creeping Jenny (aka Golden Moneywort) has a lot of flowers on it this year and that has just added a blast of more color. If you haven’t realized it yet I have an affinity for golden and yellow plants. I have also come to love yellow flowers, which took awhile as they were probably my least favorite when I started out.



This is an abstract view of ‘Rainbow’s End’ Dwarf Alberta Spruce (Picea glauca 'Rainbow's End'). This is a gold plant I could skip in my garden but it is odd and gives a little juice to a plain old Alberta. I would love to keep pontificating about these plants but I have a big day. I ended up not getting the big Japanese Maple because it had a big hole in it when they pulled out of the nursery row and they had quoted me the wrong price. I am getting a 65 gallon (3.5 feet x 4 feet) ‘Orange Dream’ Japanese Maple instead from a different nursery. That other place p!ssed me off but I have moved on.

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2 comments:

RUTH said...

Another wonderful selection of photographs and information. I do ike the way you show how to pronounce the words. My family look to me for their gardening advice (I try to do my best) and I remeber being stumped a few years ago when asked "Should I prune my Cotton Easter"...it took a while for me to realise what plant they were talking about.

Digital Flower Pictures said...

Hi Ruth,

:lol: on the cotton-easter thing. A long time ago when I worked at a nursery that was one way we used to determine if the customer was a 'plant' person or not. It generally didn't work as they were just saying it the way it looked. The phonetic plant spellings have helped me a lot. I have found that I have been mispronouncing a few plant names for years.