Senescent with dignity!

[McDonough]

I have some scutellarias but they never stay with such a pride!

This Aralia species from Himalaya (Chadwell seeds)  displays the berries and the thrushes find them as soon as the berries get ripe.

Wow Trond, that's an awesome Aralia!!!  I love how the fruits are arranged, and their color is pleasing too.  So, it's a "sp" and not identified yet?  Way back when I used to subscribe to Chadwell seed shares, but embarrassed to admit I succeeded with very few in the long run.  How large growing is your Aralia?

[Hoy]

The species had not been identified when I got the seeds. Now I have (as usual) not any labels so I have no collection number either. The plants (I have two - the other is lighter in color) grow to about 4ft. They clump up slowly.

Here's the other one. You can see almost all the plant.

[RickR]

I guess I don't have a bird "problem" with Aralia continentalis (or A. cordata).

[McDonough]

I guess I don't have a bird "problem" with Aralia continentalis (or A. cordata).

I guess I've been missing out by not growing any of these Aralia, cool plants, lots of colorful berries.  Rick, that's quite a berry bounty on your Aralia, a sultry color scheme, I like it.

[Hoy]

I guess I don't have a bird "problem" with Aralia continentalis (or A. cordata).

No you have not! The blackbird is the worst. They also dig in my rock garden picking stones and plants and tossing them all over the place. The last days I have been visited by the Bohemian Waxwing  (Bombycilla garrulus) too. They are greadyguts.

[RickR]

We have the Cedar waxwing here (Bombycilla cedrorum).  I think their favorite fruit of all is from the Amelanchier spp. (Juneberries, Service berries Indian plums or Saskatoons).  Greedyguts is a perfect name for them.  After a few days of them eating in my Amelanchier 'Autumn Brilliance' tree, I swear they have gotten fat.

Mark, mine and Trond's aralias are herbaceous.  A. continentalis has dull colored berries, and A. cordata var. sachalinensis has shiny berries.  (And I assume the entire species cordata, but I have only grown this variety.)  I think all the  hardy woody aralias for the north are thorny.

Aralia cordata var. sachalinensis at half its mature height.  A. continentalis grows even larger.

[Hoy]

As Rick says, the plants I showed are herbaceous. Here are two pics of my aralia tree, Aralia elata. It is very late flowering but the warmest years it manages to produce berries like the other aralias do. The stem and twigs are covered by spines but not as thorny as roses. Now the tree is about 6m high.

[Lori S.]

Oh my, those beautifully sleek wild creatures - cedar and bohemian waxwings - described as "greedyguts"... ?!?  One would think it was them experiencing an epidemic of obesity, rather than we Homo sapiens!   

[Hoy]

Oh my, those beautifully sleek wild creatures - cedar and bohemian waxwings - described as "greedyguts"... ?!?  One would think it was them experiencing an epidemic of obesity, rather than we Homo sapiens!   

Well, I have never seen an obese waxwing but I have seen'em drunk! They eat fermented rowan berries and can't fly afterwards. What's more, they (and the blackbirds) steal all my berries.