Make your garden berry beautiful

As autumn falls into winter and lush floral displays give way to evergreens, your garden can seem a little less vivid and inviting. However, the changing seasons shouldn’t stop it from bursting into colour. Bright, jewel-toned berries fruit throughout autumn and winter and can be used to brighten up your garden.

Horticultural Manager at Dobbies Garden World in Edinburgh, Luke Chamberlain, says: “Many plants, shrubs and trees bear ornamental and edible berries. As a result, gardeners can choose from white, dark and jewel-toned ornamental or edible berries to suit shaded, sunny, acidic or alkaline garden conditions.

“Adding hardy berry-bearing plants to your garden will also attract birds and wildlife who may struggle to source food in winter.”

Dobbies has provided this handy guide to berry planting to create a vibrant autumn and winter garden.

Red Berries

Use ruby red berry-bearing plants to warm your garden. Viburnum opulus or the Guelder Rose thrives in all conditions and has flat white flowers and clusters of vibrant red berries. Berberis thunbergii is a deciduous Barberry that, if left alone, arches naturally and bears red berries.

Orange Berries

Add an amber glow to your garden with orange berry bearers. Pyracantha Orange Glow produces an impressive number of berries every autumn. Berberis wilsoniae grows five to six feet tall, enjoys a sunny position and has wonderful orange-red foliage.

Yellow Berries

Soften the winter landscape with molten yellow and golden-toned berries. Sorbus Joseph Rock is one of the most outstanding forms of Mountain Ash with amazing autumnal foliage and yellow fruit. Malus Golden Hornet is a yellow fruit-bearing, ornamental crab apple.

White Berries

Contrast autumnal browns and winter evergreens with milky opal-like berries. Skimmia japonica Fructo-Albo is an evergreen shrub with eye catching white fruit.Cornus alba Sibirica thrives in exposed conditions and bears clusters of white fruit on its blood red stems.

Darker Berries

Mirror the approaching winter nights with garnet and midnight-sheened berries. Leycesteria formosa or Japanese honeysuckle has white flowers that are protected by a red outer layer that hangs in racemes until it bears black fruits in autumn. Callicarpa is a shrub that produces eye-catching, violet bead-like-berries in mid autumn. These plants are members of the rose family and should not be planted near established rosaceous plants.

For more expert gardening advice visit Dobbies Garden World, Melville Nursery, Lasswade, Midlothian, EH18 1AZ. Tel: [phone] www.dobbies.com