Zizz wrote in message ...


her mate. This is the third year running that my wife and I have had
blackcaps spending Christmas around our garden. They also eat from
the
bird
feeders, but prefer berries and any food they find on the ground. To
encourage wintering blackcaps and give a bit of colour at this time
of the
year, perhaps we should all add a callicarpa to our garden plant
collections.

Aphodius




Mmmmm I've been looking at them for quite a while now, off and on in ye
olde
garden centres .....
Only problem .... garden not big enough .... I'll probably get one
...eventually :-)


Callicarpa don't require much space, mine is some 10 years old and is
just over 7' high, took about three year before it really started to
flower and set berries. This year is the first I've known that the birds
have taken the berries. Usually they hang around till March, then
shrivel and drop off.

Mike
www.british-naturism.org.uk