"But.....I'm thinking it might be a hard shrub for larger birds, because the branches are so droopy, and its hard for the birds to settle on them to eat." Catherine - This statement brought to mind watching grouse (which are medium large, rather ungainly birds) feeding on crabapples in late winter in a rather young tree. The branches wobbled, the birds flapped and staggered trying to keep their balance, but the tree was eventually stripped of fruit. It kept us entertained for at least a half hour, with half a dozen grouse in such a small tree. I guess if they are hungry enough, they will work for the food.

I actually forgot to mention something to you and it is why my shrub is planted where it is..... It is VERY late to leaf out in the spring. When I had planted it I had thought it was questionable for zone 5. My zone 7 MIL gave it to me and I had not seen it up here in commerce at that time. The following year in late spring it didn't look good and I thought it was dead (although I hadn't done a scratch test). I literally ripped it out of the ground and tossed it to where it is now and planted the physocarpus you can see in the 2nd picture in its place. When I went over to the beautyberry to grab it to toss it out, some branches were broken and green! OOPS!! I wound up re-planting it right where it lay from my toss! So, it was planned that it would be on the rock wall by the steps but not necessarily in that spot. But I think it is a better spot for it on that side anyway! So just remember, in the spring when you think it's dead just keep waiting. It is worth the wait!

Answering the last question first, I took the picture a couple of weeks ago. The berries are bright purple now, so I guess I can harvest some and leave some for the birds. I planted seeds a couple of years ago and honestly don't remember any of them sprouting. One of two things happened: I re-used the soil and the seeds got planted out with other plants, or the bushes I have were not planted by me, but by a bird. This is the only bush I have with berries, but I have another nice sized one and a couple seedlings (I think they are beautyberry because the leaves look the same). The randomness of locations is why I think the birds helped out. From what I have read, there are a few seeds inside each berry. I have not tried harvesting any yet. Becky

Oh, that's funny! Didn't even notice that it was the same. Glad I could help. Your post may have bumped down to the second page. There's a forum search feature at the bottom of the page and also a list of available pages you can select. You can either search on "Beautyberry" or your username.