A spiny evergreen shrub of erect habit probably 8 to 10 ft high, of dense rather pyramidal habit when young. Branchlets clothed with a short pale down, becoming glabrous and pale brown the second season. Leaves glabrous, set 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. apart on the shoots, oblanceolate or narrowly obovate, slenderly tapered to the base, rounded or abruptly tapered at the apex, shallowly toothed except towards the base, each tooth tipped by a blackish gland, 1⁄2 to 11⁄2 in. long, 1⁄8 to 1⁄2 in. wide, bright green above, paler dull green beneath; stalk slender, up to 1⁄3 in. long. Flowers white, 1⁄4 to 5⁄16 in. wide, produced in June on small corymbose racemes, each flower on a slender glabrous stalk 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long. Calyx-tube top-shaped, the lobes triangular, glabrous; petals round; stamens about twenty with smooth white stalks; styles five. Fruits 1⁄4 in. wide, globose, golden yellow to reddish orange.
Native of Yunnan, China; discovered by Delavay in 1889; introduced by Forrest in 1911. A charming pyracanth named in honour of G. L. Coltman-Rogers of Stanage Park, Radnorshire, and the author of Conifers and their Characteristics, who first showed young plants at one of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Shows at Westminster in March 1913. The most distinctive feature of this shrub in its group is the smallness of its leaves, which gives it a rather dainty appearance, especially in a small state. It is very hardy, bears fruit very abundantly and is the most attractive of the genus in its flowers. It received the Award of Garden Merit in 1937. Awards have also been given separately to the yellow-berried form (f. flava Hort.) and to the orange-berried form (f. aurantiaca Hort.).
P. ‘Orange Charmer’. – Fruits orange-red, about 3⁄8 in. wide and almost as long, colouring mid-September. Leaves oblong-lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, tapered at the base, or almost elliptic, obtuse to acute at the apex. A selection from a deliberate cross between P. rogersiana and P. coccinea made in Germany. ‘Golden Charmer’, perhaps not yet introduced to Britain, is another selection from the same cross, with orange-yellow fruits. Both said to be scab-resistant.
P. koidzumii (Hayata) Rehd. Cotoneaster koidzumii Hayata – This species, endemic to Formosa, is allied to P. rogersiana, which it resembles in its oblanceolate leaves, long tapered at the base. But the leaves are entire (except on strong shoots) and the inflorescence and calyx-tube are downy. The date of its introduction to gardens is uncertain, but the plant at Kew, of which flowers and fruits are figured in Botanical Magazine, n.s., t. 205, was obtained from an American nursery in 1937. It is hardy at Kew, and fruits freely, despite the fact that in Formosa it is confined to low elevations. According to Dr Wyman, it is the commonest pyracantha in the gardens of the south-eastern United States, but in this country it is rare. ‘Mohave’, a hybrid between P. koidzumii and P. coccinea raised in the USA, received an Award of Merit in 1973. It bears its large orange-red fruits from mid-August onwards and is said to be disease-resistant (Gard. Chron., August 15, 1975, p. 26).