Guelder Rose

You may have seen them, bright red berries that stand out at the backdrop of green leaves and, most likely than not, grey skies. The berries of the stately and mythical Rowan or Mountain Ash - Sorbus aucuparia (not related to the Ash tree and thus does not suffer from Ash Die Back) announces the start of the season for seed collecting.

Next up is the Guelder Rose - Viburnum opulus - an upright native shrub about 4 m. tall that you will find in more damp places, such as besides lakes. They are easy to spot as these berries, like those of the Rowan, are bright red. But where the Rowan is a tree, the Guelder rose is a deciduous, spreading bush with leaves that resemble those of the Maple. In spring the flowers are very distinct. The creamy white to light pink flowers are clustered together, but what really attracts the eye is the outer ring of larger, sterile flowers.

Our rule of thumb on how many berries or seeds we collect is that we only pick what we can reach with both feet on the ground. This will prevent us from picking the shrubs bare, as these berries are an important food source for many birds, including the bullfinch.

What we will have to do next is process them. We will have to separate the seed from the flesh and skin so that they won’t go mouldy over time. Once that is done, they will be mixed with a mixture of compost and vermiculite and left overwinter in our stratification bed. This will make sure that when next spring comes the seeds will germinate and can be sown in our poly tunnels with hopefully a high success rate.