In article ,
(KR) wrote:

hmmm, maybe it isn't cotoneaster then. I cut off a rather large part
yesterday, and the growing "arms" have root systems growing into the
ground. It is definately a creeping plant in my garden, it is
surrounding rocks, wrapped around trees, it is going to be difficult
to tame. I've been thinking about digging it up and moving it to a
better location in my garden, It really doesn't have that much room to
grow without interfering with other plants.

If someone can help me identify the plant, I can send a couple of
pictures via email?? I have them on my digital camera and can
download them onto my work computer after the weekend...

No, it still sounds like C. horizontalis, unless it doesn't make the
"herringbone fans," in which case it's probably some similar cotoneaster,
though most of the others are at least partially evergreen, like C.
dammeri, & C. horizontalis is fully evergreen (with excellent autumn color
before the tiny leaves fall off). The similar more compactly leafed woody
groundcovery shrubs of the Arctostaphylos genus are also chiefly
evergreens. These all do different things in different environments, &
some will root to the ground wherever a prostrate limb touches the soil.
As woody shrubs I wouldn't regard them as "creepers," but having prostrate
& spreading forms can look like creepers in a superficial way. When I dug
out the old C. horizontalis I inherited, the root of a single plant would
sometimes go for ten feet or further just under the surface. But the one
shrub I saved after digging out the rest has not suckered or spread in any
way, except to attempt to seed itself. Here's what I saved of it:
http://www.paghat.com/rockspray.html
If there's really a question it coudl be something else I'd love to see
the digital picture, which if you have no website to post it at I would
receive at

-paggers


(paghat) wrote in message
...
In article ,
(KR) wrote:

Hi everyone, this is my first posting to this group! I live in
Newfoundland, Canada (zone 5) and have a question...

We bought a new house in December, so at the time couldn't see any
plants since they were covered with snow! To my delight, the garden
is coming to life before my very eyes!

I've always been an avid vegetable gardener, but have never had the
opportunity to deal with flowers before since I lived with my folks
before! I am trying now to identify some of the flora around our
house. I believe that I have a cotoneaster, but I'm really not sure.
I don't have a picture handy so will give a short description:

Right now (the snow is just finishing melting) it has a variety of
deep purple and green leaves. There are bright red berries on it in
places, I figured they were left from last year. It grows from one
central place and spreads over the garden, it seems to dig in wherever
it moves and is quite difficult to just lift the branches and move
them out of the way. They are all rooted into the ground!

It seems like it will soon become quite invasive to other plants in
the garden so I'd like to really trim it back, possibly grow some
plants from the clippings. I also wonder if it is possible to "force"
it to climb up the tall trees that are in our garden... I hope that
someone here can help me!

Thanks,
K

Cotoneasters if not controlled do self-seed, & each plant has an extensive
root system. Nevertheless you should be able to dig out & discard any of
it that you don't like, & what you preserve will not be a burden so long
as you remove the seedlings. I have about 8 kinds of cotoneaster & nearly
all of them self-seed wildly. Sometimes I am grabbing whole fistfulls of
cotoneaster seedlings to toss. But I don't perceive them as a burden. Some
of the cotoneasters were here before we bought the place, & getting rid of
the ones that were allowed to take root for thirty years, THAT was a
struggle, but not one that need ever reoccur.

As for training it to climb, it's surprising what training & tying &
wiring can do, but cotoneasters are shrubs not vines & are by nature
neither creepers nor climbers.

To look its best, a good specimen of C. horizontalis should have room to
produce layers of herringbone "fans" & not be so crowding a path or
sidewalk or other plants that the gardener keeps hacking it back. It gets
uglier the more it gets pruned. There are strongly upright cotoneasters,
including upright cultivars of C. microphyllus, if you want a cotoneaster
that doesn't need to stick its wings out sideways. So save whatever of the
C. horizontalis really has room to be a fan-producing shrub, & remove any
that don't have sufficient room.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/