Bearberry Cotoneaster 'Coral Beauty'

Cotoneaster dammeri 'Coral Beauty'

Rosaceae

• Full sun preferred; tolerates part shade with reduced flowering and fruit
• 1’–1.5’ tall x 4’–6’ wide; low, spreading, rooting at the nodes
• Drought Tolerance: High once established; requires excellent drainage, will not tolerate wet soil
• Evergreen to semi-evergreen; glossy green turning bronze/purple in fall and winter
• Flower Color: Small white flowers (May–June); coral-red berries (late summer-winter)
• Wildlife Benefits: Bees and pollinators at bloom; winter berries for birds; deer resistant

Coral Beauty is a low, wide-spreading woody groundcover in the rose family. In Spokane, it performs best in full sun, where it produces the densest foliage, the heaviest flowering, and the best berry set, though it will tolerate part shade with a lighter display. The single most important cultural requirement is drainage: Coral Beauty is genuinely drought tolerant once its roots are established, thriving in poor, rocky, and sandy soils, but it will not tolerate standing water or heavy, soggy ground. Water it deeply and regularly through its first season to settle the roots, then taper off to occasional deep soakings during summer dry spells. Its long, prostrate branches root at the nodes where they touch the soil, which is what makes it such an effective slope stabilizer and weed suppressor. Good air circulation and spacing help keep it healthy.

The appeal of Coral Beauty is its year-round presence in a small package. Fine-textured, glossy dark green leaves cover densely tiered, arching branches, creating a lustrous carpet through the growing season. In May and June the plant is sprinkled with small, five-petaled white flowers. These give way to an abundant crop of coral-red berries that ripen in late summer and persist well into winter for the birds. As temperatures cool, the foliage takes on bronze, merlot, and purple tones that set off the bright fruit beautifully, making it one of the more reliable small-scale sources of winter interest for a water-wise landscape. In Spokane's colder winters expect it to behave as semi-evergreen, holding much of its foliage in mild years and thinning in hard ones.

The spring flowers are visited by bees and other pollinators, and the persistent winter berries provide a food source for birds during the leanest part of the year. The plant is notably deer resistant. 

Coral Beauty earns its place in the toughest, driest, most awkward corners of a landscape: sunny banks and slopes for erosion control, the tops of retaining walls where it can spill and cascade, hell strips, and mass plantings where a durable, low-water weed-suppressing carpet is the goal. It also works well trailing over boulders in a rock garden or edging a path. It pairs naturally with other sun-loving, drought-tolerant plants: ornamental grasses such as blue fescue, low sedums and hens-and-chicks, and taller water-wise anchors like rabbitbrush, Russian sage, or a compact serviceberry.