Heating Winter Conservatory for Wildlife Featuring Cornus alba and Cotoneaster
Attracting Birds to Your Container Garden this Autumn and Winter
As the leaves begin to fall and the days grow shorter, your container garden can still be a haven for feathered friends. By choosing the right plants, you can provide seeds, berries, and shelter for birds during the colder months.
Seed-producing Plants
Two outstanding choices for attracting birds are Echinacea (Coneflower) and Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia). These plants have durable seed heads that persist well into fall and winter, offering a reliable food source for seed-eating birds like goldfinches and finches.
Hardy Ornamental Greens
Ornamental cabbage and kale are hardy plants that can withstand harsh weather and add structure and colour to your containers. They also provide shelter for birds seeking protection from the cold.
Berry-producing Shrubs
Thornless blackberry and blueberry in containers provide late-season fruit for birds, while plants like rosemary offer evergreen cover.
Special Mention: Baja Fairy Duster
In desert or drier climates, Baja fairy duster (Calliandra californica) is a great choice for attracting hummingbirds and other birds year-round, though it is more a pollinator attractor than for late autumn seed feeding.
Choosing the Right Plants
To maximize habitat and food availability during colder months, it's best to focus on plants that produce durable seed heads or berries and withstand cooler weather. A combination of seed-producers and evergreen shelter plants will create an inviting environment for birds.
Featured Plants
- Cornus alba 'Elegantissima' is a deciduous, medium-sized shrub with deep-red stems, grey-green leaves with white margins, and can grow up to 10cm in length. It produces flat heads of creamy white flowers and berries, and has a height and spread of 3m x 3m. It is hardy in RHS H7, USDA 3a-7b.
- Cotoneaster x suecicus 'Coral Beauty' is an evergreen shrub that forms a dense mound of small, glossy, dark-green leaves to 1cm long. It produces small, white summer flowers and a profusion of bright-orange berries, and has a size of 1m x 2m. It is hardy in RHS H6, USDA 5a-8b and has the AGM designation.
- Cotoneaster horizontalis is a low-growing, spreading deciduous shrub with distinctive, flat, herringbone-patterned sprays of leaves. The leaves are glossy dark green, and turn orange and red in autumn. It produces pinkish-white flowers in late spring and red berries, and has a size of 50cm x 1.8m. It is hardy in RHS H7, USDA 5a-7b.
Caring for Your Container Garden
These plants will shine out if given a sunny spot. All of the plants mentioned can tolerate a little shade and will need more water when grown in a container. It's important to note that in England and Wales, it is an offence to plant or cause Cotoneaster horizontalis to grow in the wild, so it should be kept in a pot. After this season, the cornus will be moved out into the wider garden to give it space to grow.
Award-Winning Plants
The AGM designation stands for the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, which is given to plants that have been tested for their suitability for British gardens. Both Cornus alba 'Elegantissima' and Cotoneaster x suecicus 'Coral Beauty' have this designation.
- Seed-producing plants, such as Echinacea and Black-eyed Susan, will persist into fall and winter, offering seed-eating birds like goldfinches and finches a reliable food source in your home-and-garden container garden.
- Ornamental cabbage and kale, hardy plants that can withstand harsh weather, add structure and color to your containers and also serve as shelter for cold-seeking birds during autumn and winter.
- Berry-producing shrubs like thornless blackberry and blueberry, or evergreen plants such as rosemary, can provide late-season fruit for birds and evergreen cover in your home-and-garden container garden.
