Clinton News-Record, 1985-4-17, Page 63Attract birds to your
By Harold Crawford
Continuing Fducation
University of Guelph
Birds and gardens go together. W ith a little
extra thought, you can plan a landscape that
includes features to provide birds with food
and shelter, and provide us with the pleasure
of their company.
The more varietyin habitat you can include
in your landscape, the greater the variety of
birds you can expect to attract. Birds add
song and sparkle to the garden in summer,
and color to a grey winter landscape. The
flash of a cardinal or blue jay on the January
snow is a welcome relief.
With today's trend toward enjoying
pleasures at hand rather than those of more
costly travel, an interest in birds provides a
fascinating and inexpensive hobby right in
your backyard. With this is mind, you can
consider some of the plants which will
provide shelter, nesting places, and year-
round food.
Autumn olive is a shrub with attractive
berries favored by all berry -eaters, such as
robins, waxwings and cardinals. It also
makes a good nesting area. This shrub grows
to a height of about 3 metres (10 feet). The
leaves have silvery undersides, and the
silver -red fruit is quite attractive, lasting well
into winter. Autumn olive needs a sunny
location, resists drought, and does not
require high fertility. One of its close
relatives is the Russian olive. Its silvery
berries ' provide food, and its branches
provide lodging for a variety of birds. A large
shrub, or a small tree, it has an unusual
grey-white foliage. It too needs sun, and can
withstand dry areas.
The dogwood group provides berries that
make excellent bird food for a wide range of
birds in the fall. Some of the native dogwoods
are the red -osier dogwood, silky dogwood,
grey dogwood and the pagoda dogwood.
All are shrub fomes, except the pagoda
dogwood, which develops into a small tree
with a beautiful tiered fonn due to its
horizontal branching habit. It prefers partial
shade, and is a particular favorite of the
crusted fly -catcher.
Most dogwoods prefer moist soil and some,
like the red -osier dogwood, have attractive
red stems that are especially showy against
the winter snow. Another dogwood of
ornamental and wildlife value is the cornelian
cherry. This exotic shrub carries long, red,
cherry-like fruits which attract berry -eaters
in late summer and fall. It also gives a showy
yellow splash of color in early spring, because
the flowers appear before the leaves. As well
as food, it provides a good nesting site.
You can count op Tatarian honeysuckle to
provide attractive spring flowers and abund-
ant, persistent, red or orange berries. It is
easily grown, and is definitely among the
"top ten" for food value. It offers a good
nesting station for small birds.
Viburnum is another plant valuable for
landscape, use and for attracting birds. They
offer the landscape attractive cream or white
flowers and showy fruits. Probably the birds'
favorite is the native maple leaf viburnum.
They eat its rather meagre crop of blackber-
ries quickly, leaving its purple fall color. This
viburnum grows well in the shade. Other
viburnum however are preferred for their
beauty. Both the native high -bush cranberry
and European high -bush cranberry offer a
display of brilliant red fruit in fall and winter.
The fruit is strongly flavored, but is
sometimes eaten by birds after freezing and
thawing. For the birds, it can be considered
an emergency food supply. It reaches 4
metres (l3 feet) in height. Other choice bird
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food plants from this group are the native
anowwood, nannybeny and black haw.
Two plants appreciated by the birds, but
not by the tidy gardener, are the red mulberry
and the Manitoba maple. At least 52 species
of birds rejoice at the ripe, though messy
mulberries, and the weedy Manitoba maple
carries seed all winter that is welcomed by
evening grosbeaks. A more suitable pair of
trees for the neat gardener is the mountain
ash and the Japanese crab apple. The fruits of
both last into late winter, if they are not
eaten. The Japanese crab apple is a choice,
disease -resistant, , ornamental crab with
small fruits, little litter, and beautiful pink
buds and white flowers in spring.
There are many bird -attracting plants.
Here are a few others, to consider: winterber-
ry, elderberry, staghrn sumac, chokecherry,
arden
pin cherry, raspberry, chokeberry, common
privet, bayberry, snowberry, carolberry,
common juniper, white cedar, white spruce,
hemlock, white pine, Washington hawthorn,
wild grape, Virginia creeper, sunflower,
cosmos, zinnia, corn, sorghum and millet.
W hen planting, attempt to develop a clump
of plants for a hedge effect. This creates
dense growth to protect birds from predators
and inclement weather. Most birds avoid
vast open areas. Plan to include water in your
landscape for the birds' drinking and bathing
ml
needs. If you haven't a pond or stream, pla
a birdbath in an open area, where an invad'
cat can't surpnse the deliriously happ
bather by pouncing from the bushes. Birds
are a joy in the garden - why not provide them
with reason to visit you?
Shrub roses ideal
for .busy' gardeners
By Bob Hamersma
Horticultural Research
Institute of Ontario
Many home gardeners would like roses in
their gardens but don't want to spend the
time and effort required to grow hybrid tea,
grandiflora and floribunda types. The answer
could be shrub or bush roses.
Many shrub or bush roses are grown on
their own roots and are generally much
hardier than the garden roses. They require
much less maintenance in pruning and
spraying, and the new varieties provide a
mass of fragrant bloom most of the summer.
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These plants are usually vigorous and
require more space than garden roses. Their
shape is less formal and refined, but their
graceful arching branches make them suit-
able as specimen plants and as part of a
flower shrub border.
Excellent cultivars have been introduced in
recent years as hybrids of rugosa and other
shrub rose species from the Central Experi-
mental Farm in Ottawa.
The most recent introduction is John
Franklin, a hardy everblooming and free -
flowering rose. The attractive double. red
(Continued on Page 32)
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