Amendment to my post a few minutes ago: your name snowberries is
correct! I also found the name Winter Berries in articles to include
holly and relatives.

_____________
On 2020-09-12 11:17, Jeff Gibson wrote:

> Common snowberry is one of my favorite shrubs despite being about as

> common as dirt in many habitats and growing conditions.

>

> Of course most people notice it for it's bright white berries in the

> late summer, fall, and winter. They apparently last so long because

> they don't taste so good, although I did see a young chipmunk snorting

> them down last summer at Fort Worden. The more I examine snowberry

> the more interesting it gets. For one thing it has an exceptionally

> long blooming period, starting in April around here, and it's still at

> it now as the berries come on.

>

> Snowberry flowers are very small, growing in little clusters at the

> branch tips and typically varying shades of pink with some white bits

> some times. Interestingly some plants have darker foliage with a

> subtle blueish tint and the flowers show up better on these. Sitting

> on the front porch in Everett admiring my handiwork, I noticed a

> peculiar feeding pattern of a Rufous Hummer. First it would feed on

> the snowberries, then on a Kniphofia then on the porch hummingbird

> feeder. It repeated this pattern over and over during the day.

> Kniphofia is a South African plant thus not allowed in the native

> plant garden as dictated by me - it's relegated to a pot on the porch.

> Many times Holly has asked me "can we have this plant in our yard?" If

> not native my answer is always "No", and she's allowed me to be

> Dictator so far. My only allowance is a pre-existing English Holly,

> which is a female and always loaded with berries, which the Waxwings

> visit when they show up.

>

> Earlier in the Summer I was in bad shape and had to take about as much

> break time as work time. So on one of my breaks I parked my chair in

> front of a nice Snowberry. Hands too shaky to use binoculars I sat

> close to the Bush and was amazed at the bug activity. I saw at least

> five species of bees just about as many wasps and a number of other

> flies and other insects at the flowers, along with some hummingbirds.

> Hummingbirds love snowberries even though the flowers are so small.

> Actually it makes sense since Snowberry is a member of the honeysuckle

> family. One day at Fort Worden when the purple honeysuckle's were

> blooming I noticed that the leaves and the flowers were almost

> identical color to Snowberry as the vine clambered over the bushes. I

> see a lot of hummingbirds at snowberries here in Port Townsend.

>

> Snowberry is a suckering shrub, and along with Nootka Rose quickly

> creates tickets good for wildlife to hide in. If you're a neatnik it

> can easily be pruned into formal shapes and hedges but I prefer a more

> informal look and I'm letting all the various plants in the yard blend

> together with some editing. The bare ground is getting covered up and

> I like pruning more than weeding- easier on the knees.

>

> Jeff Gibson

> Crawling around

> Everett and Port Townsend ,WA

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