Autumn berries for small gardens

Autumn berries for small gardens

The flowers that adorn the shrubs in our gardens over spring and summer are often followed by berries. If you only have a small outside space, a good way to make the most of it is by choosing plants that will give you both. Berries provide autumn and winter cheer in all sorts of colours, not just in the, dare I say it, bog standard red/orange spectrum, delightful though it is. They can be deep blue or black and even white, purple and pink.

Purple

Callicarpa bodinieri  var. giraldii ‘Profusion’: (deciduous). If you’re a fan of the colour of queens and kings, find a spot in your garden for this shrub with its lilac flowers and royal purple berries. The young leaves are bronze, becoming green in summer and then taking on purple tints in autumn. This plant will eventually (after many years) reach a height and spread of about 3 x 2.5 m. Although it does best in sun it’s also tolerant of a bit of shade.

White

White undoubtedly brightens up a dark day and you’ll probably have noticed the succulent-looking white berries of Symphoricarpos albus or snowberry dotted around the edges of parks and other communal spaces. It’s quite a vigorous plant and can take over if you’re not careful, so in a garden it’s probably best kept in a pot. If you want to keep it in check with pruning, this is best done in late winter/early spring. It will lose its leaves in winter but has small and delicate pink flowers before, and often at the same time as, the berries. It does well in sun or part shade and I’ve even seen it flourishing in quite dark places, so it’s a good plant for a tricky spot.

If you’d like a sister plant to accompany your purple Callicarpa, or if you’re not a fan of purple and would prefer the cleanliness of white (or would even like both), Callicarpa bodinieri ‘Snow Queen’ has pinky white flowers before snowy berries. (If you can’t get this try the similar – and also deciduous – Callicarpa japonica ‘Leucocarpa’).

Pink with orange

Euonymus europaeus: (deciduous). The spindle bush is one of my favourite plants because of its extraordinary bright pink winged berries with orange centres (these are the seeds). Look for a picture on the internet and you’ll see what I mean. They’re really rather other-worldly looking. Just to take things completely over the top, its leaves turn crimson in autumn and such is the wonder of nature that somehow there’s no colour clash. The berries – which birds are also keen on – are the main event but the small whitish flowers appear in early summer. Spindle bushes will grow in sun or part shade and eventually reach a height of approximately 3 x3m. It’s said that the common name derives from the fact that the hard wood of this shrub was used to make spindles and other small implements. You can find out more about this wonderful plant here:

https://www.thejoyofplants.co.uk/spindle-tree

Red, orange and yellow

Pyracanthas: (evergreen). There are many varieties of this popular and versatile plant and the size varies accordingly. They bear red, orange or yellow berries depending on which cultivar you choose. Pyracantha coccinea ‘Red Cushion’, for example, is very compact with a height and spread of 1 x 2m, so fine in a pot. Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’ is bigger at 2 x 2m. All will thrive in sun or part shade. Hungry pollinators adore their prolific white flowers in late spring/early summer and the Autumn berries provide a welcome feast for fieldfares and blackbirds in a hard winter (although it’s said that they prefer the red and orange to the yellow berries.) Pyracanthas can be grown trained against a wall or pruned to be self-standing. They also make an excellent hedging plant, not only by virtue of their evergreen foliage, but also because of their unobstrusive but robust spines which will deter intruders – human or otherwise!

Gaultheria procumbens: (evergreen). This small shrub is perfect for window boxes as it only grows to about 30cm high but will spread generously. It has tiny bell-like white or pinkish flowers which are followed by plump red Autumn berries. A slightly acidic growing medium is what it prefers, so if planting in a pot or window box it’s best to use ericaceous compost. It’s fairly tolerant of a variety of light conditions but ideally grow it in part shade.

Cotoneasters: another plant with a large family whose members vary in height, spread and form. Use them as small shrubs in pots, as ground cover, as hedges, trained against a wall or fence or even as a small tree as befits their individual characteristics. Their flowers and berries are also popular with wildlife. Some are deciduous but the evergreens are particularly good garden ‘doers’ with a long season of interest provided by their whitish flowers and berries in shades of red. They prefer sun or part shade and some will cope well with the dry shade which is often a problem under trees. A few are classed as invasive if you live in a rural area or near a waterway, so check before you buy. (You’ll just need to keep an invasive one in a pot.)

Cotoneaster conspicuus (evergreen) is a good choice for a small garden with a maximum height and spread of 1.5 x 2m. Lots of tiny star shaped flowers nestle among its small leaves in summer and are followed by large scarlet berries.

Skimmias: (evergreen). These small shrubs with their glossy leaves and vibrant scarlet Autumn berries are brilliant for a limited outdoor space. As a bonus they also do best in full or part shade. Many are not self-fertile and need a mate nearby to produce their fruits. However, Skimmia japonica subsp. reevesiana can do this all on its own. Its creamy white spring flowers are scented and berries appear summer and go on through winter. Ideal for a pot, it has a height and spread of approximately 75cm x 75cm.

Alternatively you could go for Skimmia japonica ‘Red Diamond’ or ‘Pabella’. These are self-fertile too, and look very similar to reevesiana, although they’re just slightly larger. Both have scented white flowers and red berries.

Red with blue/black

Clerodendrum trichotomum var. fargesii: this is an unusual deciduous shrub which bears clusters of white, star-shaped flowers reminiscent of jasmine in late summer. These are also fragrant and something of a bee magnet. They’re followed by small blue black berries, surrounded with astonishing pinky red, star-shaped halos. Clerodendrums like full sun or dappled shade and although they’re not completely hardy, they should be fine over winter in the South East or in a sheltered garden.  They eventually reach a height of about 5m but can be grown in a pot or pruned in late winter – around February – before the buds burst forth if you want to restrict your plant’s size.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/clerodendrum-trichotomum-var-fargesii/

Blue/black

You may balk at the idea of black in the garden as we move towards the dark days of winter, and there was a time when I would have been right there with you. But. Actually black is a perfect foil for those autumn reds, oranges and yellows. Yellow-flowered and evergreen, Mahonias generally flower over winter and early spring, but Mahonia eurybracteata ‘Soft Caress’ is a rebel which flowers in late spring and autumn. These honey-scented flowers (which bees love) are followed by blue black berries. It reaches a modest 1.2 x 1.2m so is perfect for a small space.  ‘Soft Caress’ also bucks the trend with its soft, fine foliage, unlike the unwelcoming spiny foliage of other Mahonias. Full sun or part shade.

And don’t forget roses! A bit of oversight on the deadheading front late in the season will allow those beautiful hips to form  – possibly alongside your own as a knock-on effect of that nurturing high carb autumn diet. Embrace them both, and the rainbow palette that a carefully chosen selection of shrubs can bring to your garden. To find out more about roses, visit our plant finder here