A Berry Christmas

The BBQ was a success! Even the chicken cooked right the way through - with no blood seeping out from the drumsticks! The sausages - once cracked open - was so succulent! The glass or so of red wine helped, and I felt a certain affinity with that other great cook by name of Floyd someone! (Not Patterson - he was the Boxer.) In all, a beautiful September evening, with the now rust-gold light of the sun’s rays licking the late-flowering plants affectionately.

On the fence at the rear of the garden, the orange berries of the Pyracantha positively twinkled with merriment - totally oblivious to the long dry spell we have had. (Now that’s one for the dry garden!) The variety is Pyracantha ‘A Berry Christmas’. Don’t go looking it up in your garden catalogues. It doesn’t exist yet! I have the only one.

You see, I raised Pyracantha ‘A Berry Christmas’ from a seedling. I would like to tell you how I carefully took the pollen from one type and then carefully deposited it on the mother-to- be. But IVF played no part in this chance find. The firethorn - anything but at the time - was but a weed in between cracks in some paving stones. I hacked it off (A good gardening term) with a mattock - a sort of wide bladed pickaxe which should be in every gardener’s pruning tool kit!

About an hour later, I took the wheelbarrow containing the now shrivelled-up Pyracantha to the rubbish bin, and saw that it had a cluster of pink berries; not the normal red, orange, or yellow types normally associated with this plant.
My excitement was soon overshadowed by my predicament. I now had a potentially rare plant with no root system, or going back to the paving area, had a root system with no plant! Neither of which is a viable commercial proposition.

The plant half of the problem was plunged in a bucket of water for a while - actually overnight because I forgot about it - and then the next day I took several cuttings from it. Against all odds one rooted, and is now growing by the back fence.

The berries start pink - shocking at that - then turn dayglo orange, before settling down for the winter as a deep blood red. The first year’s crop of berries lasted well into the winter - hence the name of P. ‘A Berry Christmas‘!

Since that time some six years ago, the blackbirds home in at the red stage (November) with a voracious appetite. For them, the festive season is here. Worry about Christmas when it gets here!

Somehow Pyracantha ‘Blackbird’s Banquet’ doesn’t have the commercial ring about it as P. ‘A Berry Christmas’..

I just thought you might like to know how easy it is to have a plant of your own! Forget all those writers and broadcasters that tell you that your new seedling probably won’t come true to parentage. They seemed to have missed the point! Gardening should be full of excitement - with just the odd disappointment!

Time has run out - so the ‘crispy sausage’ recipe will have to wait!

For more on self sown seedlings click here…