Cotoneasters : a comprehensive guide to shrubs for flowers, fruit, and foliage

Fryer, Jeanette, author2009

Summary

'Cotoneasters' is the definitive treatment on the genus and the culmination of 50 years of combined prodigious research. It is a monumental and comprehensive source of information on the classification, identification, cultivation, and nomenclature of nearly all the known species and cultivars. The large and diverse genus Cotoneaster includes some of the world's most useful and beautiful hardy shrubs. They vary in size from compact groundcovers to large specimens; their foliage may be evergreen or deciduous, sometimes displaying outstanding fall colour; and they frequently bear large crops of eye-catching fruits, which may be red, orange, yellow, pink, purple or black. They possess many ornamental traits and are easy to cultivate, putting them on a par with garden aristocrats like viburnums and daphnes. This monograph is a definitive treatment on the genus and the culmination of at least 50 years' combined prodigious research by the two authors. It is a monumental work and comprehensive source of information on the classification, identification, cultivation and nomenclature of nearly all the known species and cultivars (460 total). Written for a broad audience of horticulturists and botanists, from the professional to the committed enthusiast, it aims to be scientifically accurate, practical and readable. At last, Cotoneaster has received the attention it so richly deserves.