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Winter Garden Fruits And Berries

Posted in Gardening at April,2007 - 5:01 pm by Haikal

Many types of vines, trees, and shrubs will produce brightly colored berries or other small fruits to attract birds that will disseminate the seeds. The birds provide a beautiful scene of feathers flitting to and fro eating berries and enjoying a day in the snow.

As you watch the birds flying about in your garden, pay close attention to their choosy appetites. Look on as they make trips to and from, tree to tree, bush to bush; looking for just the right berry or branch. Birds take from fruits, such as honeysuckle and dogwood berries as soon as they ripen in late summer or early fall, but leave others, like the pyracantha berries and crab apples, until late winter or early spring. If space in your garden is limited to one or two of these, it would be a good idea to pick one that birds will eat in the spring, and one that birds will eat in the fall. In this way, you’ll be able to enjoy the birds and the berries season ‘round.

During especially white, snowy winters, the world can look grey and dismal. Berries will help to brighten your garden or yard with bright oranges and reds; sometimes even gold, pink, white, blue or black berries bloom. Cheerful on a dull winter day, berries will sparkle against a background of dark evergreens, or highlight a fresh blanket of snow or a new coating of ice.

The following plants are deciduous, except where it says otherwise. Most will start producing berries or fruits when they are young - often the first year planted - and will bear them regularly year after year.

Types of Fruit or Berry Bearing Plants

Bittersweets - Celastrus

A vine that will bear an unforgettable display of red orange berries blooms in autumn when the leaves turn gold and fall. Although beautiful, beware of the Oriental bittersweet. It is too vigorous for most sites and considered a serious weed in parts of New England. American bittersweet is less aggressive, but may still need watching. Bittersweets require average soil with full or part sun. To set fruit, separate male and female plants will need to be planted. They work best when trained on a sturdy trellis or along the top of a fence. Avoid letting them climb into a tree; make sure you prune severely to keep under control. Fruit won’t show until a few years after planting.

Beautyberries - Callicarpa

Even though this shrub’s berries won’t last all the way through the winter into spring, a beautyberry bush is gorgeous in the fall and early winter. Tight clusters of tiny lilac-purple or white berries decorate every stem for a spectacular site. Most types will grow about 4 feet tall, with long arching stems. Beautyberries like moist, loamy well drained soil but will take full or part sunshine. Fruit grows best if you grow three or more of the same kind together, spaced about 3 feet apart. To keep the plant bushy, prune hard each early spring, cutting last year’ stems down to the ground. This way the berries will form better on new wood.

Chokeberry - Aronia Arbutifolia

This shrub has clusters of small bright red berries that dangle from every twig. Birds dislike these berries so the show will last all winter. It has a popular cultivar of ‘Brilliantissima’. The black chokeberry has large, purple-black berries that will attract birds. It will grow 4-6 feet tall producing large pretty white flowers. It will grow well in full sun or part. Chokeberries, easy to grow and care-free, are ideal for shrub borders or semi-wild gardens.

Japanese Barberry - Berberis Thungergii

Tiny red berries dangle from the spiny twigs of this shrub throughout both the fall and winter. Used for sheared hedges, this shrub is un-pruned and forms a dense, broad, arching mound at least 6 feet tall and wide. Full-size and dwarf cultivars, both grow in bright green, golden yellow, or dark reddish purple foliage. They’ll be among the first shrubs to leaf out in the spring in your garden and will turn bright red by the time fall rolls around. This shrub grows both in sun or shade but will need direct sun for maximum fruiting and best foliage coloring. Not particular, any well drained soil will work fine. Care-free, pruning is flexible to if and when you choose.

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