My mum asked what the plant is, in my last post, with the pretty multi coloured berries. I couldn’t remember as we bought it years ago and we couldn’t even remember where we got it from so I googled it.
It is called amur peppervine but is commonly known as porcelain berries vine or wild grape. It is related to the grape vine. Birds and squirrels relish the berries but they are inedible to us. It is a fast growing climber with tendrils, for clinging, like sweet peas. It is deciduous so loses it’s leaves in winter. It is grown for the coloured berries but we are lucky that ours is variegated so the foliage is very pretty too.
Amur peppervine
Ours has grown huge
Another interesting berry in our garden is the himalayan honeysuckle. This has burgundy, hop like, flowers which then produce berries that ripen to dark brown then almost black. They are edible and are sweet with a slightly chocolate flavour. Again the birds love them and in our garden it is the black birds that make the most of them.
When I first read that they were edible and tasted of chocolate I decided to give them a try. They do taste vaguely of chocolate and are sweet and juicy but they are so small that they would be very tedious to bother with. Best leave them to the birds. I love this for the late summer colour.
Himalayan honeysuckle
We also planted a new plant last year at the edge of the vegetable plot where nothing much ever did well and it was always a dull corner. It didn’t really get going last year but this year it has given us another welcome splash of late colour.
Another late splash of colour
It is lovely to see colour in the garden at this time of year when it feels like summer’s end.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
You have some very interesting, and pretty plants.
Thank you. The himalayan honeysuckle was originally given to us as a seedling by friends of ours that have now moved to Dorset.
Soooo pretty. I was out in my garden last night helping things get ready for fall and trying to decide what needs to be moved or replaced. So much fun being out in the garden. Especially, with the hens.
I can just imagine how much help your girls are with the gardening. It is lovely having a bit of late summer sunshine.
I’ve got that Himalayan honeysuckle too – it comes up all over the place like a weed and yes the birds do love it. I didn’t know it was edible though – I was told it was called something like pheasants something or other.
I didn’t know what it was called for ages and I used to call it our “hoppy plant” then a friend visited and told me what it was called. I then googled it and found out the berries were edible. Our plant was a self seedling from another friend and this year we have pulled out seedlings. It is easy to grow and I love the colour of it this time of year but one per garden is enough I think (unless you have a huge space I guess).