Episode 110 – Beautiful, Bountiful Berries for Fall

When someone sees a shrub laden with fruit in fall – like a viburnum, coral berry, snow berry – they’re immediately like, I WANT THAT. The fruit is just so interesting and unusual. But the thing about many of these plants is that they just don’t look like all that much in spring, when people are actually in the garden center shopping. Sure, there’s a tag there with a photo of the berries to give people an idea of what to expect, but in many cases, the fruit they show, it’s almost unbelievable that it will actually form (if it’s a Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs, trust us – it will form!). So few people end up with these really interesting and unusual shrubs in their gardens, and it’s really a shame.

Of all the plants that suffer unduly based on the timing of their finest moment, I think callicarpa may just be the one that suffers the most. Its common name is, appropriately, beautyberry, and I can clearly remember the first time that I ever saw one in person. My jaw dropped, because these tiny berries are of such a bright and unusual shade of purple that it’s almost hard to believe they’re real. But they are, and you may find yourself amazed at how easy this plant is to grow, and how reliably you’ll get those unique purple berries every fall.

But as with many plants that get berries in fall, callicarpa is not usually the most interesting plant the rest of the season. They look fine enough, but especially the old-fashioned callicarpas are huge, unremarkable plants for a good 80% of the year. So when it came for us here at Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs to introduce a beautyberry, the first thing we wanted was a plant that contributed more to the garden outside of those few glorious purple berry weeks in fall, and what we ended up with was today’s plant on trial, Pearl Glam beautyberry (Callicarpa ×).

This incredible variety comes to us from Dr. Tom Ranney of North Carolina State University, and what you’ll immediately notice about it is that instead of being a behemoth of plain green foliage, it actually grows as a nice, space-saving column of deep purple-black foliage. Older beautybush varieties reached a good 5’ tall and wide, which is pretty large, especially for a plant that doesn’t look like much most of the year. Some even reach 10’ tall and wide. Pearl Glam grows with a unique upright, narrow habit of just 2-3’ wide and 4-5’ tall, so it saves valuable ground space while also acting as that all-important structural “punctuation mark” in the garden. And best of all, its foliage is a dramatic dark black color that looks fantastic with other perennials and shrubs in spring and summer, and brings amazing contrast with the white flowers form in late summer and turn into those iconic purple berries.

Some of our listeners in warmer climates may be more familiar with beautyberry than those in cooler areas, as we do have an absolutely fabulous native species, Callicarpa americana, that has big, bubble-like, bright purple berries in fall that are so much larger than others that they nearly form a dense column of fruit. If you’ve ever been driving through the South in September, you can’t miss them. Pearl Glam, however, is a hybrid of Asian varieties, which bring in that great foliage color. Our native callicarpa is hardy to USDA zone 6 and Pearl Glam is hardy down to USDA zone 5. In both cases, they may die back to the ground during a severe winter in the colder ends of its zone range. However, they will resprout from the roots and go on to flower and fruit without issue. I have found that Pearl Glam can be quite late to resprout in spring, so be patient – and be aware that its foliage is so dark, even when it emerges in spring, that it can be hard to see when it finally does sprout. You might want to mark out the area to prevent new growth from being damaged by pets or other animals (or a gardener busy with her spring tasks…).

Pearl Glam callicarpa is a shrub for full sun – without it, the foliage color won’t develop, and flowering and subsequent fruiting will be decreased. It does not need a pollinator, though you may find that for its first couple of years, it does not develop much fruit. This is normal and is simply a function of the plant needing to have a good root system under it in order to perform its best. It is hardy to USDA zone 5 and heat tolerant through USDA zone 8.

If you’d like to add Double Play Red spirea – or any of the 320+ Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs – to your garden or landscape, you’ll find a list of local retailers here.