In The Garden: Is this a cotoneaster or a viburnum?

I see, just can't remember thinking of the C. salicifolius here as gray green, but definitely a nice dark green with a sheen to it. Very nice plant.

 

Here is one of the same pictures from the close-ups with reduced saturation and color intensity courtesy VISTA's photo software ...

Could be the greyish reality... still, the leaf looks very narrow. I will have to get the other shrubs on a close-up though.

Nov 19: We have determined these are Cotoneaster salicifolius, the willow-leaf cotoneaster, now, I believe.

 

Yes: Thread starts with photos of hedged Franchet cotoneaster (as it is known, rightly or wrongly in cultivation here) or superficially similar species and then shows close-ups of willowleaf cotoneaster. Ovate-ish, conspicuously gray-hairy leaves and orange-ish fruits versus narrow, variably hairy, non-silvery leaves (and fruits often more red than orange).

 

Well, I'll get some close-ups of the same shrubs originally photographed. I sure thought they were all the same thing. However, I'll get the leaf close-ups of the original ones photographed in a row, fountaining out, at the beginning of this query. The close-up ones look just the same to me, and equally greyish when you see them in reality, but perhaps they are just cousins...

 

You can see the first shots show a different species just looking at the original photos posted here. While still not permitting a real close view, the enlargement that results from clicking on them still makes it possible to confirm the Franchet cotoneaster leaf shape is present.

While glossy and light-reflective the willowleaf cotoneaster never has the gray or silvery general appearance of the other.

 

Well, the photo is going to show that the cotoneasters are NOT exactly the same, just as Ron judged. See how smaller and more oval the leaves are. These closer-up photos in this post are of the same shrubs in the original post much further above containing the photos of the cotoneaster as fountaining greyish green hedges -- not the same shrubs as the close-ups provided just 5 posts above, which are of a different set of cotoneasters on my strata grounds. So these ones here are franchetii, and the other close-ups are salicifolius. I did a very poor job of research, not matching my close-ups with their shrubs -- like mismatched pathology specimens, a very bad show. This illustrates how sharp Ron is in his identifications. The greyish tone seems to be dependent largely on light, angle of light, etc... although the franchetii certainly look paler or greyer in the landscape... Today, in dark cloud, the shrubs looked greener close up but greyer further away.

 

Janet, I just tried in vain to find the definition of "strata" as you are using it here. Alas, it appears that I am locked into regional definitions on the web. It seems to be used as a common term in Australia...and Canada????

 

Oh, I know, I should have discarded that term in this venue and used "condominium". I had a hard time with that when we moved here to the Saanich area on Vancouver Island in 2006 from Nova Scotia. I think because there was a history in Vancouver of high-rise condos the legal language started using the term "strata" for a condo lot, i.e. in various layers in the stratosphere! As in level in a multi-level... That's my theory, anyway. The governing Act legally is the "BC Strata Property Act". There are a lot of townhouse developments, as well, which are spread out in landscaped property with lawns and gardens, and these are still called "stratas" by all and sundry, and are governed by the same Act. A strata lot is one unit in a townhouse condominium plus patio, etc. The term is confusing to newcomers or those outside British Columbia!