BERRY-BEARING PLANTS – In garden making this term is used to designate in particular those ornamentals which produce their seed within brightly colored seed vessels and are therefore in many cases decorative throughout the winter ; that is, it does not apply to the edible bush fruits of the garden although they, too, are “berry bearing.” The garden use of berry-bearing shrubs and small trees has grown with the developing appreciation of their value in winter landscapes and also with the increasing interest in bird life and its conservation until it is now usual for nursery catalogs to list the type and color of berry yielded by each as well as the period of bloom. Not all produce showy flowers, but most of them are sufficiently attractive to warrant their generous use in shrubbery plantings for their bloom as well as for their colorful berries; and they are a necessity in plantings for autumn effects.
According to whether the berries are especially favored by birds for food or are merely decorative, these plants fall into two groups. It is an advantage to the garden effect that the berries of some are almost never eaten by birds ; these retain their decorative quality all winter. But because of the importance of bird-life conservation to gardeners as well as to farmers, it is short-sighted to use only those which the birds do not like. A few may gq into prominent places where all-winter color is greatly desired, but in backgrounds and thickets those which provide well for birds are more desirable.
Most notable of these are the dogwood or cornel group, the flowering dogwood being the finest native berry-bearing tree. Native hawthorns, viburnums, chokeberries, June-berries or shadbush, buckthorn and bayberry all include varieties that will provide growth from low up to 20 ft. in height. All wild or species roses have bright fruits, many large and brilliant in color. And all barberries are richly bespangled with their vivid berries.
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