The Best Trees and Shrubs for Fruits or Berries

The days are getting shorter and light intensity becoming dimmer as the sun sinks lower in the sky. Enter the autumn show-stoppers. Shrubs with ornamental fruit bring colour to the garden at a time when the year is drawing to a close. Most importantly they provide a food source for birds and small rodents. Many of the trees with attractive fruits put on a scintillating autumn display and the few which hang onto their berries into winter are invaluable for both birds and gardeners.

A Selection of the Best Shrubs for Autumn/Winter Berries.

• Viburnum opulus (Guelder rose) looks magical when its clusters of translucent bright red berries are covered in dew drops on an autumn morning. Birds including song thrush, mistle thrush, blackbird and robin will soon gorge themselves on these eye-catching treats.
• Hedera helix (English ivy) has many variants and cultivars. The late ripening berries provide an exceptionally nutritious, high fat source of food for birds at a time when little other fruit is available.
• Sambucus nigra, the typical wild elder produces flat topped heads of musk-scented, creamy white flowers in early summer followed by bunches of tiny black berries New cultivars have been introduced in recent years including ‘Black Lace’ which has finely divided dark purple, almost black foliage.
• Sambucus racemosa is the red berried elder. The cultivar ‘Plumosa Aurea’ has finely cut leaves which begin life bronze before turning golden yellow. Don’t prune elders too hard if you want plenty of berries.
• Shrub roses are excellent-value, dual-season plants, the summer flowers followed by plentiful supplies of hips. Rosa glauca has arching reddish-green stems carrying many spherical red hips. Rosa moyesii produces red, flask shaped hips and Rosa rugosa bears tomato shaped orange/red berries.

Many other garden shrubs produce fruit including Mahonia and Berberis, but none match Cotoneaster and Pyracantha for the quantity and consistency of their crops.

Some of the Best Trees Which Bear Fruits in Autumn and Winter

• Sorbus aucuparia (mountain ash or Rowan) puts on a magical show every autumn when its spherical red berries glow in the mellow light. They are, however, eagerly devoured by birds.
• Sorbus hupehensis ‘Pink Pagoda’ carries pink-white berries which remain on the tree well into winter.
• Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’ is rightly very popular with its stunning combination of brilliantly coloured finely divided leaves and drooping bunches of yellow berries.
• Crab apples such as Malus ‘John Downie’ and ‘Golden hornet’ produce a rich harvest of orange/red and yellow fruits respectively.
• Ilex ‘J.C van Tol ‘ is a self fertile holly which will provides a plentiful source of bright red fruits for Christmas.

Now is the Time to Pick Some Berried Treasures

If you garden is lacking in berried treasure, now is the time to visit the plant or garden centres, purchase some of these gems along with The Best Winter Scented Winter Flowering Shrubs and plant them this autumn whilst the soil is still warm.