I have been looking in the seed catalog at shrubs. I found a Sea Berry or Sea Buckhorn. It requires a male & female bush. The bush is real hardy. Has anyone had any experience growing these bushes? What I like about it is they will hold their fruit for the birds in the winter (that is if the birds don't eat all the fruits early on). I live in zone 4 & the soil is clay.

I have never grown Sea Buckthorn, but have come across them in nurseries now and then. From what I know, they are easy to grow and generally low maintenance, and tolerate temps down to zone 3 -- but beware the thorns. Also, they tend to sucker densely, and extensively, spreading to form a large clump.

A great tree for attracting birds in your zone would be a mountain ash. They love the berries in the late summer/early fall. They have the tendency of holding their fruit for a long time as well.

Thank you Frann, & The Plant Doc, The Buckthorn sounds very evasive so will drop that one. I have found 4 varities of Mountain Ash in the Jung's Catalog. The Russian Mountain Ash, Ivan's Beauty, Ivan's Belle, & Rabina Mountain Ash. What varities would you suggest? Two varities were suggested for more fruit. There is also a bug or disease killing the regular Ash trees in our area. I wonder if the Mountain Ashs would be affected by this?

Try a Mulberry bush or tree. I have four and the birds flock to mine in Spring, ESPECIALLY, Robins, Mockingbirds, and Cedar Waxwings.

I have a holly berry shrub in my backyard. The birds seem to like the red berries. I live in zones 3 & 4 as well, and also have clay soil.

Thorny, I have a mulberry tree in my backyard and the birds just love it.

lol, my neighbor has a mulberry tree, too. a lot of the branches are over the back part of my yard...

i ALWAYS forget and walk around barefoot when the berries are busy falling...end up with purple feet!!

the birds DO love the berries tho!!

The mountain ash is not a true ash tree, so the blights which are effecting them will not harm any mountain ashes. If you are trying to attract birds I would go for the one that has the highest potential for berries.

Ms.Tmac, I had the hollyberry shrub marked in a seed catalog but was not sure about it. I called the catalog company and they are sold out. Maybe a nursery around here will have it on hand. I was amazed at all the berries on the stems in the catalog photo. The birds sure would love that.

The mulberry tree sounds like a purple monster. LOL !!! I could see purple stains on everything, everywhere, purple house, purple car, purple sidewalk, purple laundry hanging on the clothesline.

black cherry, choke cherry, etc

We need all of you gardeners' to head on over to the NEW FORUM!!!

Click here to jump to new forum...