PlantFiles: Bearberry Cotoneaster
Cotoneaster x suecicus 'Coral Beauty'

This is an excellent plant for controlling erosion on a bank. My son's house, in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, is on a lot with a steep slope, and the driveway has a very steep bank to the right as you drive down. The neighbors' house above this bank also has two roof gutters that cascade water down this slope in wet weather, creating a large erosion problem in the heavy Georgia red clay.

I found three of this variety of cotoneaster on sale at K-Mart one Autumn for $2.50 each. I had never heard of this plant, but the tag said it was good on banks, so we planted them 10 feet apart, as the tag suggested. Within three years these fast growing plants had intermingled and completely covered this slope, and recently my son's house received 7 inches of rain within four hours, and the slope held with no erosion.

You generally don't notice this plant--it's just a low sprawling mound of greenery. It does have small white flowers in the Spring and reddish orange berries in the Fall, and can take quite freezing weather. The foilage turned a reddish brown when the weather got down to 6 F degrees or so, but the plants weren't hurt at all, and came back strong the next Spring, just growing new small green foilage on the same "canes."

My son didn't think these plants were very attractive when we planted then, but he now admits it's the right plant in the right place. This bank has a Southwest exposure and can get up to nine hours of afternoon and early evening hot Georgia Summer sun, so it was difficult to find something that would survive there, much less thrive. We did build a low rock wall and fill in with some top soil to get the plants started, and they are under an automatic, in ground, sprinkler system. Atlanta usually gets about 55 inches of rain a year, but these plants were planted at the beginning of a three year drought, so this is one tough plant that is good for tough places.

Beware of voles girdling the trunks. Although the plant will recover by sending up new shoots quickly, they can reduce the plant to 10% of its size.

Prostate shrub that spreads rapidly with glossy evergreen foliage. Whitish-pink flowers in spring are followed by coral-pink berries. Ideal for rock gardens and/or as a spreading groundcover along borders, banks and slopes.

Easy to grow plant thrives in ordinary, well-drained soil. For best results, remove dead and damaged growth in mid spring. Drought tolerant