Autumn berries are ripening up all around us, so far the birds haven’t eaten many, but then, it hasn’t been too cold yet to kill off all the insects which they feed on. Maybe it is too soon to say, but I feel that maybe the heat of our summer has taken its toll on how many berries there are, some plants aren’t showing any berries at all. These first berries are sloes, fruit of the Blackthorn bush, anyone for sloe gin?
This apple tree was here when we moved here, they are eating apples, but are always so very hard and bitter, I think the wldlife can enjoy these!
This however, is our Bramley apple tree and we will enjoy those. There are lots more apples on the tree than last year when we only managed to collect one basket full.
A good year for Cotoneaster horizontalis, this is growing up the kitchen wall and when the blackbirds decide the berries are ripe, we can watch them gorging themselves from inside the window.
The purple Berberis by the front door has its usual decoration of tiny berries, usually these are finished off by visiting redwings and fieldfares when the weather is really cold.
By the front gate, the orange berries shine out on the Pyracanths, but the bush that has red berries, or I should say, that usually has red berries, this year has non at all.
We will be sharing these blackberries with the wildlife, a couple of cooking apples, a few blackberries and there you have the makings of a lovely autumnal crumble!
Poor lonely honeysuckle berry, usually the honeysuckle is covered in lovely red berries, there are quite a few shrivelled ones, but these were the only red ones I could see.
Hawthorn berries are doing fine and there will be plenty for any wildlife that cares to come and eat them.
Elder berries on Sambucus Black Lace soon disapear, I’m assuming the berries on this bush taste the same as the ones on the wild elder in all our hedgerows.
Popping up everywhere are the berried spikes of Arum italicum marmoratum. I know the blackbirds eat the berries and that is how they get spread round the garden, but I have read that snails also eat them and spread the sesds!
That’s it for now, I didn’t find any lovely purple berries on the Lonicera hedge this year or any shiny black berries on the Ophiopogon in the back garden. The berries on the Leycestaria formosa were all shrivelled, no use to the birds at all. These three plants have always had berries previously, maybe the bees weren’t around when the Lonicera was flowering in the spring, but when looking for berries on the ophiopogon, all I found were flowers! I think the lack of rain over the summer has caused the Leycestaria and other berries to shrivel up, but I hope we will still have enough to keep the wildlife happy over some of the winter, then it will be up to us to put out extra food for them. How will the wildlife cope in your garden this winter, do you have plenty of berries to keep them happy?
Those elderberries look like pearls!
Pyracantha and blackberries doing well here. Some berries on the Ophiopogon, but what disappoints me most is the Callicarpa Profusion that I planted last year. Just a few really small berries that have no colour yet. Maybe early days or maybe next year!
Jessica, so sorry to hear about your Callicarpa berries, did you have plenty of flowers in the spring? Maybe it needs more than a year to settle down.
A most cheerful display of berry goodness Pauline. It seems to be a great year for apples doesn’t it? Not sure what has happened with my leycestaria. It seemed to be flowering well although I’m not sure whether there any berries yet. Now that it’s finally stopped raining I might well go and have a reccie 🙂
Thanks Anna, they are cheery aren’t they? I think everyone here is trying to give their excess apples away, including me, we all have so many! We didn’t have as much rain as they forecast, thank goodness, in fact it is now very sunny!
Arum italicum marmoratum is doing well here this year, not in the garden but by the side of the roads, I don’t think there have ever been so many.
Any wild Arum that pops its head up in the garden gets pulled out Christina, the variegated variety is allowed to set seed as they look so lovely in dark shady places.
I’ve been back at college today and noticed all the berries that had appeared – it’s a lovely thing to see and somewhat compensates for the lack of summer. I have to pop back tomorrow and will have time for a good look round to see what’s happening in the gardens there – a real treat in store! I managed to get about 500g of elderberries from the City Farm tree the other day and made cordial for the first time, my gosh, SO delicious! Can’t see any more elderberries (stripped branches only) and wonder if they have a short season due to birds eating them or are they just few this year? Any thoughts, Pauline?
Caro, I think the birds have started eating the elderberries early this year, I can see where they’ve been, so obviously something has been at them, I had to search for the ones in the photo!
You are so lucky to have a super garden to explore at your college, will we be seeing photos of it!
I thought I must have missed this post Pauline, but then realised it has been posted today as well as your foliage one. I had to smile at your hard and bitter eating apples, relieved that it’s not just me – but I wonder what they would be like dried? You certainly have a good crop of cookers and it looks as if they are fairly readily accessible too. You have a great display of berries throughout your garden too – as you say,,the birds will love them. This is the first year I have noticed that there are also ‘berries’ on honeysuckles – and a range of colours according to the variety. Thanks for sharing
It might be worth having a go at drying the apples, they are on the small side though. The Bramleys are nice and big and we do manage to get most of them with the step ladder and the fishing net from the pond! As well as the birds eating the berries, if our dormouse isn’t already hibernating, I’m sure it will be taking its fair share!
Yum! What a delicious bunch of berries. Bird and man alike will feast well! Blessings, Natalie
Yes, Natalie, birds and little mammals will enjoy the feast in the garden as well as us.
Lovely post with all that colourful natural bounty! I think your birds are well catered for. We have lots of sloes in the hedges just beyond our garden this year, and elderberries galore. The cotoneaster, laurel and berberis always have a lot, and the mahonia had loads but they disappeared as soon as they were ripe! The yew tree is also an attraction already and the blackbirds like them.
I agree Cathy, the wildlife has a good selection to choose from, they had already eaten the Mahonia berries which come much earlier and I couldn’t find any on our old yews. We are always finding seedling yews round the garden so there must be berries each year for the birds to eat and spread the seed. I feel I ought to make something from the sloes, do you have one of your gorgeous recipes for them?!
I checked my leycestaria Pauline and there are now berries forming – there is definitely a north/south divide 🙂
Your birds Anna are lucky to have the Leycestaria berries, we just have shrivelled berries thanks to the heat earlier. I think there will be plenty of others though to keep them happy.
Nice images and wander through your multitude of berries. I should check on my Arum italicum.
I should have enough berries Susie, to keep my birds and animals happy for a while, I certainly hope so!
Hi Pauline,
very interesting reading about your different berry bushes, I’m always on the look-out for berries for my birds. We have some elderberry which was eaten a while ago, now there are quite a few birds in the dogwood, a tree that is frowned upon here as it’s very invasive, but the birds and the bees love it. The other day there was even a black cap straggler. We have lots of ivy as well, again loved by the bees and in late winter by the birds.
My meconopsis baileyi seedlings are doing fine, I’m keeping my fingers crossed they’ll survive the winter. How are yours coming along?
Sorry I haven’t written for such a long time, I put myself on a blog cold turkey as I was spending way too much time reading instead of doing! Now that winter is approaching I have more time to spend inside.
Lovely to hear from you again Hele, some of our bushes have been stripped already, like the cotoneaster under the kitchen window. Our Ivy by the front gate is covered in flowers at the moment so any bees that are around can find some nectar, later the birds will enjoy the berries.
My meconopsis seeds are still in the fridge, I won’t sow them until January or February, which is when we are more likely to have some frost.
I can understand not wanting to comment on various blogs, modern technology does tend to take over, doesn’t it?!