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Cotoneaster 'Ladder Leaf' (Bearberry Cotoneaster) - This evergreen groundcover grows 1 to 2 feet tall and spreads outward to 4 to 6 feet wide with rounded dark green leaves held tightly and overlapping on distichous branches. Small pinkish white flowers in the spring are followed by small orange-red berries.
Plant in full sun to part shade and irrigate occasionally to infrequently. Has remained evergreen for us but likely will be very hardy and deciduous down to at least 5 degrees F (USDA Zone 6). Cotoneaster 'Ladder Leaf' is a plant San Marcos Growers named and introduced into the nursery trade in 2016. The name for the genus is derived from the Latin words 'cotone', an old name for the quince plant, and the suffix 'aster' means "resembling".
It is a seedling plant found in the garden of Aloe hybridizer John Bleck (1933-1925) who as manager of the UC Santa Barbara greenhouses in the late 1970s had received seed though Index Seminum, the seed exchange program that botanic gardens worldwide participated in, labeled as Cotoneaster "nomen nudum" (an undescribed new plant) from the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden. He later determined it was Cotoneaster hjelmqvistii, a plant first introduced into Europe from China prior to being scientifically described. It came first into Europe at the Botanic Garden in Lund, Sweden in 1943 from a garden in Hungary and released in the trade by the Belgian nursery, Van Nes, in 1954. It was finally described under its current name in 1991 but has long been in cultivation in Europe where it was often confused with Cotoneaster horizontalis, the Rockspray Cotoneaster, and went by names such as Cotoneaster horizontalis 'Coralle', 'Robusta' and 'Dart's Splendid'. John Bleck planted one of the Cotoneaster hjelmqvistii seedlings in his Goleta, California garden and in 2011 noted an interesting seedling emerge from beneath it with tight overlapping growth. This might just be an interesting seedling of C. hjelmqvistii or perhaps it is a hybrid with C. dammeri 'Lowfast' which was planted nearby. Because of its congested overlapping leaves held in neat alternate ranks, John Bleck suggested we use the term "ladder leaf' in its name.
Information displayed on this page about Cotoneaster 'Ladder Leaf' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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