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As winter slowly arrives and the garden begins to transform itself
into a winter garden oasis, I am reminded of how beautiful this season can
be.
Dark greens, browns, and grays seem to be the most popular colors of winter,
but you can always find red and yellow in many fruits, stems, and bark. The
cool-season annual pansies and ornamental kale are always surprisingly tough
and provide some splashes of color and excitement to the winter garden.
The red fruits on crabapple, hawthorn, holly, deciduous holly, and nandina
are easy to locate each winter. Their colored fruit stand out perfectly
against winter’s neutral background.
Japanese beautyberry
Callicarpa japonica, Japanese beautyberry, is a unique plant for the
garden. They grow only 4 to 6 feet in height and with equal width, so they
don’t take up a lot of room. You can plant them singly or in a small group,
and they look just as beautiful either way.
The flowers emerge in the summer and are white, but can also appear to be
light lavender. They cover the length of the new growth. The flowers are
quite subtle. Because they flower on new wood or the current season’s growth,
one common maintenance practice is to cut this plant back severely, even to
about 6 inches or so above the ground at the end of each winter.
Beautiful berries
The foliage is not striking, but still quite full. Its simple leaves are
typically two to three inches long and are best described as an average
green. Fall color is very nice, with the leaves turning yellow with a hint of
purple. As the fall color sets in, the fruit turns from green to a lavender purple.
Individually, the fruits are quite small, but they are held on the stem in
groups that are about an inch in diameter. What’s most impressive is that the
fruit cluster can line the stems from top to bottom of each branch. The
weight can make the branches arch slightly more than normal for the plant.
You won’t feel guilty if you choose to cut some stems to use for decoration
in the house. Birds do not typically eat the berries.
The fruit, while beautiful and unusual in color, does not remain colorful on
the plants all winter. By the end of December, or whenever we have
temperatures in the low 20s, the fruit will begin to fade and turn black.
Japanese beautyberry prefers to be planted in full sun but will tolerate
light shade. They are not picky when it comes to soil conditions, but a
well-drained site is best. This plant is actually one that will do quite well
once established in areas where the soil has been heavily cropped or is not
very fertile.
Beautyberry cultivars
One popular cultivar commonly available is ‘Heavy Berry,’ known for fruiting
heavily even when the plants are young. You may also find ‘Leucocarpa,’ which
has white fruit, but is quite a bit more difficult to find.
It is such a simple pleasure to be able to look out my windows and enjoy my
garden each winter. I have started to notice that my teenage children will
even stop for a moment on occasion and glance out into the garden. It makes
me happy that they are starting to see and appreciate the quiet beauty that
winter brings to our garden and to our home.
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