I thought it would be fun to start a thread about decorative fruit/berries in the garden.

I know I will likely be thought idiotic for saying this, but there is something so delightful to me in a branch laden with fruit, edible or not. It brings to my mind a provincial picture of harvest, or a woodland where creatures and wildlife can come to feast on fruit. Fruiting plants are one of those naturalistic curiosities that I secretly adore, along with such things like moss, lichens, mushrooms, and cones (like conifers).

I think every garden needs to have at least one fruiting plant. They add so much interest in fall, and even winter. I didn't know I had so many until I looked in my garden for them.

Here are some of the plants (perennials, shrubs, vines, trees, etc.) with fruits:

Mountain Ash tree. Has clusters of garishly bright orange fruit. Starlings are partial to them. For many years I never even looked twice at the berries, but now I am always on the lookout for first orange blush. The color does compliment the late-summer colors.

Symphoricarpos doorenbosii 'Amethyst' (aka 'Kordes') is known as Coral Berry shrub. This cultivar has bubble-gum pink oval berries. I am so in love with this shrub. So unusual. The common species, known as Snowberry, has white fruit. Dainty foliage and flowers.

Chaenomeles. Quince shrub. Has edible fruit that turn a yellow color when ready to use. I made a spoonful of jam last year and it was wonderful. Beautiful flowers in early spring.

Lonicera (Honeysuckle) have berries. I have a few Honeysuckle shrubs that produce bright red berries that the birds like. My honeysuckle vines also have berries, which I didn't know until last year.

Virgina Creeper has beautiful powdery blue clusters and red foliage in fall.

Rose hips are interesting. Some of the species have oblong hips I think.

St. John's Wort. Bought my 'Albury Purple' last year. It is just starting to put on little fruit. So cute!

Gaultheria procumbens- Wintergreen. Has sweet bell flowers in spring and red fruit later in the year. I bought mine last year with fruit on it. I ate one and it tasted minty. Bad texture though, so I let the birds have them. ;-)

I also have a patch of raspberries that I find very attractive in fruit.

Red Twig Dogwood, Barberry, and Yew have a few berries as well, though not in great abundance.

So, what decorative fruit/berries do you have in your garden?
CMK

Thanks for helping me to think about more comfortable times.
Duane

I planted some blueberries this year. They have such nice year round interest and they're edible. Once they get old enough to bear fruit, it will be nice to get a few before the birds find them :) I'd rather share with the birds, than have to deal with covering the plants.

For next year, I'm hoping to get some purple raspberries, which sound very intriguing. Has anyone tried these?

The photinia is covered with berry clusters. My wax myrtles have a few tiny berries forming, but not as many as other years. Duranta berries are now bright gold and I'm hoping I get a few branches of American beautyberry to bring inside---after they've turned, but before the birds gobble them all up.

I have a hawthorn that I just love. We almost lost it to a bad ice storm this past winter. It is in my fenced-in cottage area and just outside the front window. The orange berries are fantastic all the way into the winter. I especially love them when they're covered with ice. Just the other day I saw one Cedar Waxwing checking out the tree. That is my all-time favorite bird and I've been trying to lure them to my yard for 10 years. I'm hoping he's telling his friends there's good-eats at my yard!

I have a handful of crabapples but this year the chipmunks shimmied up into them and ate all the buds so I never got any flowers or fruit. Did anyone have any idea those little buggers would do that. It never ceases to amaze me the damage they can do.

Another one I love and could never do without is beautyberry. Treelover, I've never had the birds eat the berries. I'm actually happy they don't because that is another winner when the berries are encrusted in ice.

I have elderberry but the birds will devour that over the next few weeks. I also recently planted many varieties of Viburnum and am looking forward to many colors of berries in the future.

My barberries put on a fairly good show.

The Amelanchier didn't do too much this year but that shrub is also pretty new.

I also like to put out some little gourds and pumpkins from the farmstand in my annual pots and urn. I absolutely love the fall!

I love fruit and berries in the garden and, in addition to the afore mentioned beautyberry, I have:

- Firethorn - a whole hedge of it. Red berries that stay on during Winter until they are finally stripped down by birds, around February. Fantastic bird food source all Winter long and vicious thorns (great for security purposes) make it an all time winner in my book.

- Quince tree - the real fruit tree, not an ornamental variety. Currently so heavily loaded with fruit that some of the fruits are dropping to the ground still unripe because the branches can't hold them any longer!

- Strawberry tree - these grow like weeds, and to tree like proportions, in my neck of the woods. Heavily loaded with fruit at the moment, the fruits are now beginning to turn red.

- Amelanchier - my plant is still small but it did flower and fruit in Spring. Berries don't stay on the shrub for more than a couple of days because the birds get them in no time.

- Weeping mulberry - I've given up picking the blackberries on this one. The blackbirds always beat me to it. I think they attack whoever plans to approach that tree, LOL. They spend so much time there when it is in fruit that I thought they had nested there! :-)

- Hollies - I have quite a few different ones, both variegated and solid green, and I love, love those red berries. Nothing speaks Christmas more than a fruited branch of holly.

- Rose hips - Ballerina puts up the most lovely tiny red hips that stay on the plant all Winter long. The rugosa rose has also wonderful fat red hips that look like cherry tomatoes.

I need to get gaulteria again, I tried it once but lost it. I also wish I could lay my hands on symphoricarpos, but have never seen it offered for sale here. I would love a rowan/mountain ash, but unfortunately no room. They are one of my favorite trees. I've seen them growing wild in Scotland and they are a sight to behold in the right climate.

Can you tell I love Fall and Winter in the garden? :-)
Eduarda

Beautyberry, are you talking about Callicarpa? I tried one a couple of years ago, but it never did anything. I spent several years nursing the thing and it never put on ONE INCH of new growth. No flowers or fruit. It died after I moved it. I am not really sorry either. I love the look of the berries, but it grew waaaaaay to slowly for me.

-treelover, you are my kind of person! I bet you love long rambles in woodland areas too, right? Gosh, nothing delights me more than finding a patch of lichens or new fungi. Lol!

-thyme2dig, Symphoricarpos is one of my favorites! The white ones grow wild over here. You can see them growing under Bull Pines and they never flinch with drought and poor soil. I have a start of the white one, but no clue where to put it. Lol, I know what you mean about things looking yummy but are not edible! In my case it is Primrose leaves. Every time I see those big leaves in the spring I just want to break out the ceasar and croutons! ;-)

-Eduarda, you MUST try a Symphoricarpos! I am sure you will love it. Do you have any place you can mail-oder it from?

Pics are very welcome by the way!
CMK

Ilex attenuata 'Savannah' is always loaded with red berries for Christmas.

Ilex x meserveae 'China Girl'

Ilex verticillata 'Carolina Cardinal' and Ilex verticillata 'Sparkleberry' are the two forms of winterberry that I grow. The former is more shrub-like while the latter more tree-like.

Mahonia bealei. Blackish-blue berries. We're considering removing this plant because it is a bit aggressive by seed.

Yes, I should have said . . . Callicarpa, I think mine's the americana, but am not positive. I'd call it weedy looking and have never noticed any flowers, but mine's just covered with berries this year. It was planted two years ago (from a 6" pot, I think) and already has some 8-foot branches. Definitely not a slow grower! Since it's drought tolerant, you may get too much rain for them, CMK.

Eduarda, I forgot about Pyracantha! I MUST add that to my garden list. I'm so glad you mentioned it.

I forgot until Spazzycat listed it that I bought a dwarf mahonia last year. Hasn't done too much so I guess I forgot it's supposed to flower and berry!

-thyme2dig, I am green with envy! Yours is truly beautiful. Maybe treelover is right about the moisture. We obviously have a lot of spring rain, but our winters are also rather wet. Are your winters wet over there? Summers are dry though. Hummm... Could heavy soil be a problem for Callicarpa?

I wish I had more room for larger shrubs! I would get a few Viburnum. I love the red ones. But don't you need several varieties to pollinate?
CMK

I have pics of pears and scuppernong grapes in my garden, but Photobucket won't cooperate, keeps throwing me to some Dell search page. ;(

Nell

Callicarpa - I had a species americana and moved it when it was 4 years old. It died. I replaced it with a dwarf because I am so out of room. The dwarf has been a disappointment. Both were planted in heavy soil, the species was in more sunlight. I think I’ll replace the dwarf with the species now.

I have a species Rosa glauca. My, my - what beautiful hips! They persist all winter and hold up in a vase. The rose itself is small, single pink and has small blue foliage. I'm sure starts would live through the mail in the spring.

I love porcelain berry vine, but should reevaluate for it's invasiveness. Maybe I'll grow it up a post in the middle of the yard. I do love the berries.

The jury is also out on blackberry lilies. I constantly tie them up; they are floppers. But they have interesting berries; look just like blackberries. Small orange flowers that twist open.

My favorite seed pod is an asclepias called hairy balls. The pods look like 2" green balloons.

I love berries, but never have time to talk or think....

(CMK - I think most if not all viburnums are good to go; no pollinator needed. All of mine have been..)

Mickie

I see the dogwood has red berries, the nandina is loaded with green clusters of berries that will turn red later and the poke weed is loaded and some have turned purple (these I am cutting down as fast as I find them!).

g.jan, I have a bittersweet still in the pot waitng for a home. I love them.

Nell, keep trying; I want to see those pears. I have 4 trees and am still waiting for fruit..................

Scuppernong grapes, bronze and sweet.

I saw a red berry on the ground underneath my 'Little Gem' magnolia. The seed pods are bursting open and dropping seeds.

Nell

Annette

I have never tasted a Scuppernong grape. They look luscious too.

Eduarda

This shrub has become naturalized in several areas of Portugal, including where I live and in the Algarve, where it's also extensively cultivated in the Monchique area for the production of the said firewater. It attains tree like proportions given the right conditions - see a view from above of mine.

Absolutely carefree in this climate, it withstands drought conditions in Summer very well and is a lovely sight when the white delicate flowers share the branches with the red fruits, which quite often happens during mild Winters. See the Wikipedia link below for some more information about the plant. The page in Portuguese is more complete, but the English has some information as well.

Eduarda

I think I remember you said that you topped off your quince jelly with 'firewater'. Is this the same kind?
CMK

So far this year I have made about 10 bowls of marmelada and several pots of quince jelly. And my quince tree is still loaded... Help! LOL

Eduarda

Eduarda

And a close-up of the very delicate blooms which are true bee magnets.