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Adrian Thomas

Have you noticed that, by the turn of the New Year, there's barely a berry or fruit left on garden bushes and trees for any Fieldfare, Redwing or (we should be so lucky) Waxwing that comes a-calling?

So what garden plants will hang onto their fruits as a post-Christmas feast for the birds?

Well, here are my top tips, plus a photo I took this Christmas to prove just how fruity things can be at this time of year:

  • There are some gorgeous pink- or white-berried Sorbus trees which seem to cling to their fruit well into winter. Last week, I found two trees in different places which both had a Mistle Thrush defending the crop against all-comers. Sorbus vilmorinii or Sorbus kashmiriana are two well worth a try. When I dropped in at RHS Wisley last week, their Sorbus hupehensis still clung to their red berries, alive with Redwings and Blackbirds.

  • Pyracantha (Firethorn) has a habit of hanging onto its berries well into winter, whether the red- or yellow-berried versions. This is one of my 'all-rounder' plants because it offers nesting cover and nectar-rich blossom too.
  • For something very different indeed, try the Handkerchief Tree Davidia involucrata, whose name comes from its astonishing white flowers, but which then has pendulous dull-brown fruits that the Fieldfares have to do acrobatics to reach.
  • Various pears cling onto their fruit well into winter - Pyrus pashia and Pyrus salicifolia will both offer late sustenance.
  • But my cream of the crop has got to be Crab Apples (Malus sylvestris).

Have a look at this beauty, which I photographed on 29 December in Worcestershire. It had Blackbirds aplenty in it, and in cold weather I've seen it draw down the Fieldfares like nobody's business.

None of our garden birds can swallow Crab Apples whole, so they have to wait for them to ripen so they can peck at the flesh. And once the thrushes, Starlings and Robins have stabbed into them, the Chaffinches and Great Tits can nick the seeds.

What with spring blossom, colourful autumn foliage and then this polka-dotted winter display, I'd love to see Crab Apples planted in fruity profusion in gardens across the country.