Sorbus alnifolia, Korean Mountain Ash, small tree Ilex pedunculosa Longstalk hollies, evergreen Stranvaesia davidiana if you can stand the smell of the flowers. Evergreen as well Crataegus viridis 'Winter King' another tree Crataegus phaenopyrum Washington Hawthorn, tree again Since I cheated and mentioned some trees, might as well add Crabapples. Ilex x meserve blue hollies, I like Blue Princess Add Playboy to the rose list Rosa Rugosa Rosa glauca Rosa moyesii Viburnum setigerum tea viburnum Ilex verticulata Wintergold for another color barberries, black stems with red berries but invasive here Ilex glabra, dark and white berried forms Ilex serrata x verticillata and various other forms of ilex if hardy in your area And a word about Symplocus paniculata - sapphire berry, they don't hold their berries long in the fall but they are a bright blue.

Discussion Posted by Eduarda 10 - Portugal I love berrying shrubs. They are so useful and look so lovely in Winter. So, what are the berrying shrubs that you have, love to have and have to have? Ill start with those I have. - Hollies - ilex aquifolium, JC Van Toll, Golden King, Aureomarginata - Nandina domestica - Firethorn - my privacy edge separating me from the road - Viburnum tinus - some blue berries are already showing up - Callicarpa - the purple berries are wonderful at this time of the year - Pernettya - pink and white berries - Cotoneaster horizontalis - Ruscus - Hips in rosa gallica officinalis and versicolor, Heritage and Veilchenblau What else am I missing for my Winter garden? Eduarda __________________________________________________ Follow-Up Postings: RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: TheGardnr z6 MA Ilex verticillata __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: Eduarda 10 - Portugal (My Page) Right! I love it. If only I had a source to obtain it! I´ve never seen it offered for trade in Portugal... Eduarda __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: Herb Victoria, B.C. Cotoneaster franchetii. Grows to between 2 and 3 meters tall and has LOTS of orange berries. I've just added a picture of ours to the Hortiplex database. __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: Teri2 6/7 TN (My Page) Ilex crenata (a fast growing boxwood look-alike) is used extensively for sheared hedging here. What most people don't realize is that if you lay off the shears when it flowers in spring, you'll be rewarded with a crop of dark blue berries that will have mockingbirds hopping all over those hedges come winter. __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: Eduarda 10 - Portugal (My Page) I didn´t know that about ilex crenata - thanks for letting me know. Another one I´ve never seen in Portugal, sigh... Eduarda __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: bahia SF Bay Area (My Page) Acmena smithii(purple) Arbutus unedo(red) Cestrum aurantiacum/elegans/nocturnum(white or red) Clerodendrum trichotomum(turquoise) Dianella ensifolia/intermedia/tasmanica(turquoise to deep purple) Duranta repens/stenostachya(golden yellow) Helmholtzia glabberrima(white) Heteromeles arbutifolia(deep red) Hedychium gardnerianum(orange seeds) Mahonia aquifolium/lomariifolia(blue) Pittosporum tobira/undulatum(deep yellow to orange) Symphoricarpos albus(white) Syzygium paniculatum(purple) Not all of these have berries in winter, but all of them do have seasonally showy berries/fruits. It also pays to be careful with berrying shrubs, as the fruits may be exceptionally attractive to birds, and cause problems if spread into wild lands. This is a real problem with some Cotoneaster and Hedera species in California. It may be safest to use plants that can't get established from seed/or aren't quite hardy in your climate, rather than things that can/are... I would look for plants that come from climates with the opposite rainy season to yours, or that are known as noninvasive in your region. __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: dirtydave 8 (My Page) I live in Seattle, which has a mild, maritime zone 8 climate not too unlike northern Portugal. All the berrying plants mentioned in the opening list do well here. Here are a few more: Aucuba japonica Sarcococca confusa Ilex cornuta __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: rebow 6 Philly (My Page) beautyberry with its purple berries and winterberry with red ones that last all winter. __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: Eduarda Z10 - Portugal (My Page) I have beautyberry (callicarpa americana) and this year I´m keeping my fingers crossed it will be a real beauty, since it has grown quite a lot since last year and the berries are already forming! I love winterberry, but unfortunately I have never come across it in Portugal. If anyone knows of any mail order company in Europe from where I could import it, I would be eternally grateful. TIA Eduarda __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: luseal z 6-7 PA I used to plant many butterfly bushes, but not anymore. I removed at least ten of them(all) and planted three iridescent purple/blue VITEX. They look like butterfly bushes except they are prettier. The leaves are more beautiful and the spiky flowers, more lush and vibrant than a butterfly bush. I planted them in different beds and use they as a small tree. I pruned all the lower branches so I could plant under them. Unless you want a full bush( which is beautiful, if that is what you want) do not shear this shrub. Stratically prune it like a fine tree and you will be rewarded with a small 5 foot flowering tree/shrub. It needs full sun. (Did you have a sweltering hot summer in Portugal as all the other European Countries had?) __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: Eduarda Z10 - Portugal Luseal, your suggestion sounds lovely, but unfortunately this is yet another plant I´ve never seen offered for sale in Portugal... I need to have a word with my favorite garden centre and see what they can come up with. We are indeed in the middle of a terrible heat wave. 13 out of the 18 districts which build up the country have been (and still are) under uncontrolable fires and most of the country´s forest has been devastated. 14 people have already died. Thousands of people have lost their homes, burnt to the ground. The government has declared a state of public calamity. Honestly, I cannot remember a more afflicting Summer. And the temperatures are still at over 110 F for we don´t know how many more days to come... __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: Iowa_Jade 5a I was reading a book on the Lewis & Clark expedition and read about a description of Symphoricarpos albus or Snowberry. They mentioned it was good for steep banks and erosion control. That is one of the main reasons that I would be interested in same. They mentioned the birds only ate it if they were REAL hungry. All parts of the plant are poisonous, except to birds. Any other choices you might reccomend? Thanks! __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: shrubs_n_bulbs z8/9 UK Symphoricarpos berries are not poisonous, they just taste really bad, that's why the birds leave them. They used to be used as a last-resort food source in winter. They can cause vomiting if you eat enough. __________________________________________________ RE: Berrying shrubs Posted by: jeff_al 8 AL (My Page) No one has mentioned skimmia japonica. have a look at joe's photo from the garden photo gallery. now, what in the world is a guy in alabama doing on the winter garden forum? *lol* __________________________________________________

My friend said a lot of smooth trunked eucalypts are still standing in her area after the vic fires. Wish I could grow grevillea rosmarinifolia , but the kangaroos eat them down to nothing. We had a fire lit by a fire bug around midnight a week ago after a very hot day, with fierce winds blowing through the valley. Luckily I was still up and noticed the huge orange glow above the forest and rang it in - it was a kilometre away, very scary. I've been researching fire retardant plants and tearing my hair out, the lists are so contradictory, especially now that I've found the Tasmanian government site. They reckon many of the plants listed as fire retardants are in fact highly flammable eg acmena smithii (lilypilly), casuarina cunninghamiana (river sheoak), elaeocarpus reticulatus (blueberry ash) corymbia maculata (spotted gum). But I've spoken to someone who said fire swept through a friend's vineyard and was stopped by a line of lillypillies. Also I tried burning fresh lillypilly leaves on a big bonfire one year and they didn't want to burn. Surely there's a reliable list out there somewhere done by someone who knows their stuff? For now IÂm going by the ACT government list (type in Âfirewise home gardensÂ) and the Country Fire Service of South Australia list, in the hope that after their bush fires, theyÂll have done some decent research. If anyoneÂs interested, I have compiled a list of most commonly mentioned fire retardant plants, with a code indicating who recommends them, whether the Tassies reckon they are flammable, and whether they are weeds  an amazing number of them are! Do you want me to post it? These are the other results I got testing plants on my bonfire. Acacia iteaphylla (flinders range wattle which many lists say is fire retardant) burnt pretty easily. Acacia vestita and acacia elata (cedar wattle) were slow to burn. Acacia floribunda and a. cognata both flared up very quickly. The needles of casuarina cunninghamiana flared into flame quite quickly but immediately died, and the wood didnÂt seem inclined to burn. Eucalyptus leucoxylon took quite a while to catch, then just kind of melted  however it often has quite a few dead branches on the tree so this could be a fire hazard. Corymbia/euc maculata burnt like leucoxylon. Callistemon little john and c. dawson river weeper didnÂt catch quickly, and didn't burn with a whoosh. Hakea laurina (pincushion hakea) didnÂt catch very easily. Leptospermum nanum (red) flared up very quickly. Japanese bamboo was terrifying, it exploded, sounding like gunfire going off all over the valley, although admittedly it was dry, as weÂd cut it down during an evacuation alert. Does anyone know if rosemary actually is a good fire retardant? I've seen it on quite a few lists; some say only the prostrate form is fire tolerant.

Technically, any large (or medium) sized tree has the potential to have invasive roots - it is just that some are more invasive than others. Structural problems are usually not caused by root upheaval, but by the reduction in moisture in reactive clay soils which cause soil shrinkage and potential movement in the foundations. It is usually a good idea not to plant trees and shrubs no closer to the house than their mature height - so, a tree that grows 8 metres should be planted a minimum of 8 metres from the house. As far as shady trees are concerned, you may want to look at the Blush Macaranga - grows to 6 metres and produces one of the best shade canopies of large heart shaped leaves I have seen. It self-seeds prolifically, however, so you need to be careful. Some of the grafted gum trees may be okay - 5+ metres high with very showy flower displays in summer. Ian