American Beautyberry Bush

13 years ago

There are 2 options for planting this in my yard, and I would like everyone's opinion on which is better. 1) Full sun, all day. No shade after 9am. 2) Mostly shade, at the edge of Bradford Pear's shadow. Some dappled sun during the afternoon.

Thanks for your help!

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Comments (6)

texasflip
13 years ago
Based on where I see it grow in the wild, I would go with shade/dappled sun.
rock_oak_deer
13 years ago
Here's a link to a recent discussion on the same topic. They seem to do well in both sun and shade. I really like mine in the filtered sun in my yard.

Here is a link that might be useful: Beautyberry thread
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Oh, thank you, Sandy, for the ID. I will label him properly. Won't he be a beautiful butterfly! I 'think' this is what the little cats are eating: Veronica repens Sunshine Golden Creeping Speedwell I didn't purchase it so I'm guessing. A local garden center gave me some little pots they were throwing away and some still had growing medium in them, along with what appeared to be dead plants. This one was a Steppables or Walkables plant and it just began to grow. I stuck it down in the garden and it continued to grow. It makes such a bright spot of color as it creeps over the top of the soil. Information on-line says the Buckeye/Junonia coenia cats will also eat these plants that I have growing: cudweed Mexican Petunia Ruellia brittoniana cracker Russelia equisetiformis Butterfly Bush Buddleia davidii (says not as favored but will use as host) Mary
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WANTED: American Beautyberry/Callicarpa americana
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Comments (2)
American Beautyberry bushes grow wild all over my property. This year they are spectacular. The rain has allowed them to keep their leaves, and the berries are plump and profusely covering the plants. From what I've seen of the plants in the wild, they will tolerate a wide variety of conditions. They seem to get the most berries when they are in full sun, but the will grow as an understory plant. In the full sun, they will probably need supplemental water in a residential landscape. In the wild, they tend to loose their leaves in August if it's too dry. The bare branches keep hold the berries for quite a while. The birds seems to like the berries, so it's pretty common for baby beauty berries to pop up here and there. I wouldn't call them invasive. If you don't want the babies that pop up from the seeds, they are easy enough to get rid of.
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Comments (8)
I grow mine quite hard and it took awhile for them to look good. They had to establish themselves the old fashion wild way. They like a bit of moisture but are very drought tolerant once established. I did not water them in the big drought and they took a vacation and did not perform very well but did greta this year. I see them in the wild in Central texas in bottom land or in canyons not far from streams. Mine are in part shad. not far from a grey water drip. The others that are further away under an oak tree with morning sun but dry grow slower and loose their leaves when drought comes. The birds got all of the seed this fall.
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Comments (20)
UPDATE: i did 60 days cold moist strat as Select Landscapes Iowa suggested in peat moss in the fridge then planted them under light in my basement in March in 2x2 cells. got nearly full germination probably between 30-60 days from planting. Thined them out leaving one per cell, grew them to 2-3 inches height then potted up into 4' pots and placed them outside in morning sun with no care except very occasional watering. heres how they looked mid July before I potted up to gallon pots: One seemed more highly branched than the others so I marked it with a stick, another one is already flowering. very happy with the results so far, I'll update again maybe next year if I can overwinter them successfully.
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shawnalis
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you both for answering.

And thank you, Rock Oak Deer, for finding my first posting of this question!! I posted the question but then couldn't find it on the forum. I must have mistakenly posted it to another forum?
rock_oak_deer
13 years ago
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.
wally_1936
13 years ago
I do hope you give it plenty of room to grow as they can get quite large and sprawling. They have quite a strong root base and can be started quite easily from seeds.
whitecap
13 years ago
These grow in the wild in East Texas as a sprawling understory shrub, usually about waist high. When tramping through the woods as a boy, I carefully avoided them, because I was convinced they were a host for chiggers.

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American Beautyberry Bush

Comments (6)

texasflip

rock_oak_deer

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shawnalis
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rock_oak_deer

wally_1936

whitecap

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American Beautyberry Bush

Comments (6)

texasflip

rock_oak_deer

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shawnalisOriginal Author

rock_oak_deer

wally_1936

whitecap

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shawnalis
Original Author