Berried - Oregon Association of Nurseries

Berried
in beauty
Many options are available for those who love the all-season
beauty of berry-producing plants
By Elizabeth Petersen
Althouse Nursery
Milky cotoneaster (Cotoneaster lacteus, upper
right) grows up to 12 feet tall and bears dense
clusters of red fruit in the fall and winter.
Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), above,
is a low-growing, evergreen berry bush reaching
about 6 inches in height. Its leaves are used to
flavor herbal tea as well as teaberry ice cream,
a regional favorite in the south and east.
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FEBRUARY 2010
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In winter, when color in the garden
is hard to come by, plants that decorate
themselves in berries take center stage.
These berry-bearing ornamentals give
gardens seasonal pizzazz that doubles
as indoor décor. They give resident
birds and other wildlife sustenance
through lean times, and some of these
beauties even feed humans.
Shrubs, trees and groundcovers,
many of them natives, produce berries,
and Oregon growers have plenty of
choices to offer for use on projects big
and small.
Evergreen huckleberry
The sources interviewed for this
article all agreed on one plant as the
hottest, berry-producing ornamental:
Vaccinium ovatum, the evergreen
huckleberry.
Garden designer Anne Marsh,
co-owner of Marsh & Fear Garden
Solutions and current president of the
Association of Northwest Landscape
Designers, cited V. ovatum as a favorite that she uses widely in tough
conditions.
“It is perfect for the parking strip
because it is easy to take care of and
drought tolerant,” she said. “Beautiful
with lavender, it takes sun and stays
compact with selected pruning (3-4
feet tall and wide) or takes shade and
stretches out to about 8-10 feet tall and
wide.”
The small, black berries make good
jam, pies or syrup, but they are also
beloved by birds, especially cedar waxwings in Marsh’s garden.
Althouse Nursery, located in the
Illinois River Valley of southern Oregon,
focuses on growing native plants, many
curt kpp
is slower to stopped, we are going
through Vaccinium ovatum faster than
anything else, even at a higher price.
Most growers have trouble keeping it in
stock.”
Amy Daniel, co-owner of Pleasant
Hill Nursery, located south of Eugene,
Ore., described her nursery as a “grower of high quality landscape material in
sizes from liners to field stock.” She
said that V. ovatum is “always being
spec’d for its rich combination of dark
green foliage and blue berries. The
plant is versatile, growing well in the
garden or in a container. It attracts lots
of animals too.”
Heavenly bamboo
Another popular four-season ornamental that decks itself out with longlasting red berries is heavenly bamboo
(Nandina spp.).
Amy Daniel, who said that Pleasant
Hill Nursery has “lots of experience
with Nandina,” lauded these plants
for their year-round interest: beautiful
foliage, delicate flowers, fall color and
long-lasting clusters of red berries that
make great holiday displays.
For best berry production, she recommended ‘Harbor Belle’ and ‘Harbor
Dwarf,’ two of the shorter selections
that reach only about 18-24 inches.
For taller choices, she recommended
‘Umpqua Chief,’ ‘Royal Princess,’ and
‘Compacta,’ all topping out at about
more than 5 feet.
Designer Anne Marsh agreed.
“Nandina cultivars are used extensively
in the home garden for a variety of
design needs,” she said. She recom30
FEBRUARY 2010
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of which produce berries. Owners Graig
and Barbara Delbol seek natives that
“merit greater use in landscapes and
function as a crossover between habitat and ornamental horticulture,” Graig
said.
Vaccinium ovatum is a winner in
both areas. “We love that plant,” Graig
said. “It takes full sun in southern
Oregon and offers visual interest all
year with red and pink new growth,
pink flowers and berries that are edible
for people and birds. It can be sheared
as topiary or into a hedge as a substitute for boxwood, and it makes a great
foundation plant.”
It and other natives are in high
demand. “The local market is more
progressive in their thinking than retailers give them credit for,” Graig said.
“Even Bi-Mart sees high demand for
that plant.”
Joel Grace of Chehalem Mountain
Nursery in Hillsboro, Ore., also reported
a “big increase in the demand for native
plants, including evergreen huckleberry,
for their low maintenance.”
Vaccinium ovatum is “real,
real popular,” he said. “Even during
December, when demand for everything
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Picks
▲
It isn’t hard to get growers to talk about plants. The
tough part is getting them to narrow down their list
of favorites to just a handful. Here are some of the
varieties our sources recommended:
from the
Pros
Joel Gracel
Vaccinium
corymbosum ‘Sunshine
Blue’ – This cultivar
with showy pink spring
flowers is well worth a
mention. I know we all
appreciate this plant for
the blueberries loved by
people, but visually, it’s fabulous year round,
and the birds love the berries, too. What
makes it particularly interesting as a Vaccinium
is that it’s evergreen in the Northwest. It looks
wonderful in the landscape as a shorter hedge,
planted en masse or as a stand-alone plant. It
is also a pretty plant year round in a container.
Aucuba japonica
‘Gold Spot’. – We
think this is a really
nice berry plant. We
don’t understand why
it isn’t more popular.
It has big red berries
that are very pretty
and noticeable. It’s more picked for the leaf,
which has gold spots. ‘Gold Spot’ is adaptable
to shade and gets to be big – about an 8-foot
rounded shrub with age.
Pleasant Hill Nursery
Pleasant Hill, Ore.
Chehalem Mountain Nursery
Hillsboro, Ore.
Red flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum)
– All species are good
ornamentals for dry
sites. They bloom best
and produce chains
or clusters of pink-red
flowers and little blueblack fruit if sited in lots
of sun.
Viburnum spp. – V. davidii is in high demand
from big landscape contractors for schools,
hospitals and road projects. It is hard to keep
in stock, popular for its tough, evergreen
foliage, low stature
and clusters of
metallic blue fruit.
V. tinus ‘Spring
Bouquet’ develops
metallic blue fruit
that is great in
arrangements.
Anne Marsh
Graig and Barbara Delbol
Marsh & Fear Garden Solutions
Portland, Ore.
European
cranberry
(Viburnum opulus
‘Compactum’) – This
bush maintains a
compact form about
5 feet tall and wide,
with pruning and
produces beautiful
berries that
hold well.
FEBRUARY 2010
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Wintergreen
(Gaultheria procumbens)
– While this is a an
Eastern U.S. native, it
does well in the Pacific
Northwest and serves
as a tough, 6 inch
tall groundcover in a
woodland setting. Its
dark green, oval leaves provide a nice contrast
to the bell-shaped pink to white flowers. In the
fall, bright red berries are a cheery accent. The
best part is the wintergreen flavor of the leaves
and berries.
Silktassel (Garrya elliptica and Garrya
fremontii) – Both are Pacific Northwest natives.
G. elliptica, with its
wavy-edged leaves,
is found at the coast
while G. fremontii,
with its glossy smoothedged leaves, is the
more inland variety.
In early spring, male
plants produce long
catkins which give the
plant its common name. In late summer/fall,
the female plants produce long strings of dark
purple, grape-like fruits. Both varieties have
tough, leathery leaves. Since it is an evergreen,
Garrya can make a great hedge. It does well in
poor soils and is very drought resistant.
The evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)
is a favorite in the Pacific Northwest and
elsewhere, because its berries are delicious and it
is so versatile. It is drought tolerant and does well
in sun or shade, offering visual interest all year
long with its leaf color, blooms and berries.
mends them to her clients, many of
them do-it-yourselfers, as a great tough
plant to enhance the garden. The
upright, taller variety ‘Royal Princess’
produces an especially heavy crop of
red berries, she said.
According to Joel Grace of
Chehalem Mountain, N. domestica
produces the most ”dynamic” show of
red berries. The plants can be used as
stand-alone stars or planted in rows or
clumps, where they provide “lots of
good color year-round,” he said.
‘Compacta’ produces plenty of
berries; ‘Harbor Dwarf’ stays low and
spreads out, but Joel said that the berries are more hidden inside the plant;
‘Plum Passion’ is an upright selection
(about 4-5 feet tall and wide) with
unusual purple foliage that fruits up
best when a pollinator is nearby.
Sarcococca
Marsh also raves about Sarcococca.
“Fantastic: a great landscape plant with
many uses that is good in part to full
shade,” she said.
Good for smaller sites, Sarcococca
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Sambucus spp. –
Many cultivars are known for their gorgeous
foliage, but they also produce spectacular
blooms and loads of berries. I recommend S.
racemosa (red elderberry) ‘Sutherland Gold’ for
striking golden
foliage and red
berries, and
S. nigra (black
elderberry)
‘Black Lace’
for exotic,
tropicallooking
foliage and
purple-black
berries. For
maximum fruit
production,
plant two
varieties.
Althouse Nursery
Cave Junction, Ore.
Gordon Leppig & Andrea J. Pickart
Amy Daniel
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Berried IN BEAUTY
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Berried IN BEAUTY
Elizabeth Petersen
Monrovia markets paired male and female holly shrubs (Ilex spp.) under the Berri-Magic® brand to assure customers they will get berries. Shown here is the
Royalty combo, comprised of Ilex × meserveae ‘Blue Prince’ PP 3517 and I. × m. ‘Blue Princess’ PP 3675.
provides year-round beauty with handsome evergreen foliage. In spring,
small white flowers produce intense
fragrance, but remain largely unseen,
hidden amid the foliage.
S. ruscifolia has red fruit and S.
confusa has black fruit, Marsh said. S.
hookeriana makes a great groundcover,
lower and wider than the other species.
Even thought the flowers appear early,
the fruit persists for months and is still
available to decorate the holiday table.
According to Stan Grace of
Chehalem Mountain Nursery,
Sarcococca is “among the earliest bloomers, late January or early
February, and the orange blossom fragrance permeates the whole neighborhood.” The adaptable plant makes a
“good, compact, low hedge to about 6
feet. It is popular with residential customers, so we always keep it on hand
and we sell quite a bit.”
S. ruscifolia and S. confusa are “virtually identical” evergreen shrubs that
get around 6 feet over time and can be
trained into an espalier, he added.
Both develop drupes that are
important enough to supply the genus
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MARCH 2010
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with a redundant name: “sarcos” means
fruit and “coca” means berries.
Deck the halls with holly
The many varieties of holly (Ilex
spp.) produce stunning shows of red
berries that are synonymous with holiday decorating. Most need both male
and female plants to make berries.
Marsh likes varieties of winterberry
(I. verticillata). They produce “enormous crops of rich red berries that
create a big bang statement for a large
property,” she said. “They last all winter
until consumed by the birds.”
At Pleasant Hill Nursery, I. ‘Nellie
Stevens’ is “one of the top runners with
wide usage,” Daniel said. It is a heavy
producer of berries that bring birds and
wildlife to the garden.
“(It has) gorgeous, dark green,
glossy leaves and is well-mannered,”
she said. “It bears without a pollinator and has many uses, as a topiary, a
focal point or a hedge without much
pruning.”
The dwarf Japanese holly, I. crenata ‘Helleri’ is frequently specified on
commercial landscape jobs, said Joel
Grace. It stays small – only about 1-2
feet tall – and bears black berries.
“It looks more like boxwood than
typical holly with its narrow evergreen
leaves,” Grace said. Demand is also
good for ‘Compacta’ and ‘Convexa’
Monrovia assures pollination and
excellent fruit production of some hollies by planting one male and one
female in a single pot, said Nicholas
Staddon, director of new plant introductions. Sold under the registered name
Berri-Magic®, the Kids’ Holly combination includes Ilex × meserveae ‘Blue
Girl’ and ‘Blue Boy.’ The slightly larger
Royalty Holly combination includes Ilex
× meserveae ‘Blue Prince’ and ‘Blue
Princess.’ These hardy, evergreen hollies
have glossy, blue-green leaves with purple stems, and “the combinations have
proven very successful,” Staddon said.
A new variegated holly, Santa’s
Delight®, was discovered by Jim
Zampini in Ohio, where winters are
“beastly,” Staddon said. “(It is) a zone
hardier than regular English holly. It
survived two consecutive brutal winters.” Available in limited numbers,
plants boast deep blue-green foliage
with creamy borders and a great show
of berries.
Red Beauty® holly (Ilex × ‘Rutzan’),
though not exclusive to Monrovia, is
“one of the great hollies of our time,”
said Staddon. Bred from three species
by famed plant breeder Dr. Elwin Orton
of Rutgers University, the dwarf plant (8
feet tall and 4 feet wide) boasts nearly
perfect form, a “neat conical shape
without shearing.” It has dense, finely
textured, dark green, glossy foliage and
produces abundant bright red fruit with
“exceptionally high winter hardiness.”
Cotoneaster
Cotoneaster cultivars are reliable
producers of berries, but “some are
overused,” said Marsh. She “loves” the
upright C. lacteus, an evergreen shrub
with a graceful habit that makes a
“wonderful background plant or informal hedge.” Easy to grow with few
demands, it bears heavy crops of red
berries that persist well into winter.
“Berry producing plants are often
required for building projects,” said
Grace. Cotoneaster dammerii, for
instance, is a low growing spreader that
is mainly used on hillsides or in islands
as a low groundcover to cover large
areas. Although Chehalem Mountain
Nursery grows it by the thousands,
“there hasn’t been as big a demand for
it recently, but I expect it to come back
into favor,” Grace said.
C. dammerii is used frequently
in commercial projects, because it is
easy to keep in bounds and it can be
“hacked back.” ‘Lowfast’ has pink-red
berries; ‘Coral Beauty’ berries have a
lavender hue, and the berries don’t stay
for as long.
Amy Daniel recommends
Cotoneaster microphylla and C. m.
‘Thymifolia’. Both are “charming, sweet
low plants with tiny, glossy leaves and
heavy berry production. They make an
excellent mid-height groundcover and
are good for bonsai.”
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Berried IN BEAUTY
Snowberry
For white berries, Delbol (of
Althouse Nursery) recommends snowberry (Symphoricarpos). “(It’s) a great
little plant, especially for dryland situations and bank stabilization,” he said. “It
takes an unbelievable amount of abuse
and has showy white berries.”
Monrovia offers an exclusive series
of compact (3-5 feet) improved snowberry selections that were bred in the
Netherlands in a cut flower breeding
program. On the market for about four
years, these new plants should be sited
where they can be seen from indoors,
Staddon said.
Charming Fantasy® produces an
abundant crop of large white berries
that take on shell pink blush. The striking fruit decorates the winter scene
on leafless stems, providing food for
atively late (September-December) berries, it “makes a great centerpiece in the
back garden or as a vertical accent near
a stream or pond” with pretty summer
blooms, she said. It can be pruned and
shaped to keep it dense and encourage
fruit coverage over the whole.
The berries are an extraordinary
color and make a nice foil for blue foliage, such as that of spruce selections
and red foliage, like that of Cordyline
spp. and Acer palmatum ‘Moonfire.’
Callicarpa ‘Profusion’
Marsh, the designer, names the
“underutilized” Callicarpa ‘Profusion’
as a personal berry-producing favorite.
This upright plant with electric purple
fruit is a desirable addition to the landscape, she said.
Even though birds compete for rel-
Top-notch natives
Althouse Nursery supplies contractors with large quantities of native
plants, mostly seedling liners, for environmental, wetlands and restoration
projects. “The typical job requires thousands of native plants,” Graig said. The
nursery also supplies retail landscape
nurseries, designers and garden centers
in southern Oregon with native plants.
“Some natives are more showy
than others and respond well to cultural
practices that make them great garden
plants,” Graig said.
He identified madrone (Arbutus
menziesii) as a very showy, broadleaf
evergreen native that supports local
populations of birds near the nursery.
“Flocks of robins go nuts for the berries
and feast on them from late October
through early December, putting on an
unbelievable show,” he said.
Since madrone trees need room
and are very particular about good
drainage and infrequent waterings, they
are not suitable for small gardens. But
in the right setting, the tree produces
beautiful bark, foliage and flowers as
well as clusters of bright red-orange,
rough-coated berries that make great
ornaments “until the birds get them.”
Althouse propagates from seed, so
the owners have to outsmart the birds,
collecting seed from local trees and
back roads, or purchasing seed from
reputable sources.
Crategus douglasii (black hawthorn) is a beneficial native that produces great fall color and loads of
persistent red-to-black berries. Although
curt kipp
migrating birds and making long-lasting
floral arrangements.
Scarlet Pearl® produces large, dark
pink fruit that is great for “spicing
up northern native plant landscapes
and wild garden woodlands.” Bright
Fantasy® puts on a large crop of pure
white fruit in fall.
“These plants are crucial for wildlife
and an excellent choice for harvesting
boughs in autumn and winter to adorn
the table,” Staddon said.
The beautyberry shrub (Callicarpa spp.) is noted for its incredible purple berry clusters that stick around
in winter long after the leaves are gone.
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MARCH 2010
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curt kipp
Heavenly bamboo (Nandina spp.) is a popular fourseason shrub with gorgeous reddish-green leaves,
delicate flowers and abundant berries when two
shrubs are placed near each other for pollination.
“a little brushy for the landscape, it can
be good for gardens if pruned and it is
great for wildlife, wetlands and [mitigation of ] erosion.” Another good hawthorn for berry production, Crataegus
phaenopyrum ‘Lustre’ flowers late and
is popular in urban landscapes as an
ornamental and wildlife tree. It produces huge crops of orange-red fruits that
feed wildlife all winter.
Chokecherry
Marsh recommends chokecherry
(Prunus virginiana), an “underused”
deciduous plant with berries that stand
out after the foliage is gone.
Plants are hard to find and people
don’t know about them, but it is a great
vertical accent plant (6-8 feet tall) with
a pretty spring bloom, bright red fall
color and clusters of red berries that
persist well into winter.
Delbol also recommends the plant,
but advised that once the fruit ripens, it
is eaten up by wildlife and gone by the
end of October. “Our motto is, if you
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MARCH 2010
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Berried IN BEAUTY
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Hardy Perennials
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Elizabeth Petersen
Toll Free: 877-843-2155
Fax: 503-843-2232
www.broadmeadnursery.com
8610 Broadmead Rd. * Amity, Oregon 97101
Convexa Japanese holly (Ilex crenata ‘Convexa’),
so named because of its convex leaves, is
often used as an alternative to the boxwood
hedge because it grows more rapidly and is
more durable.
see seed (of chokecherry), pick it,” he
said. “Actually, the motto applies to all
plants that we collect from.”
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MARCH 2010
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Serviceberry
Marsh also suggested serviceberry
(Amelanchier × grandiflora), which can
be pruned as a small tree (10-12 feet)
or grown as a large, multi-stemmed
shrub. ‘Autumn Brilliance’ is a “great
landscape feature at the corner of
a deck. It produces fabulous white
blooms early in the season followed by
edible blue berries that birds love and
devour quickly in May and June.” In
fall, the blue-green foliage turns “brilliant” orange-red.
Every source mentioned Mahonia
as a great berry plant. There will be a
feature article extolling the virtues of
that wonderful genus in the July, 2010,
issue of Digger.
Elizabeth Petersen writes for gardeners
and garden businesses, coaches students
and writers, and tends a
one-acre garden in West Linn, Ore.
She can be reached at
gardenwrite@comcast.net.