It’s hard to keep an ornamental garden looking interesting in winter. But with careful selection, you can plant a bevy of berry-producing shrubs that will hold their fruit into winter, creating a nice contrast to the stark landscape. Many of these shrubs are natives, so they are easy to grow in your yard. You do, however, have to be careful about invasive berry-producing shrubs, which are not good choices. Birds will eat their berries and excrete the seeds, so the plants will spread throughout the environment. Shrubs such as Japanese barberry, burning bush, and buckthorn can thus become invasive.
Here are some examples of shrubs that look great in your yard and are good berry producers for fall and winter.
Cranberry Bush: The American cranberry (Viburnum trilobum) and European cranberry (V. opulus) are large shrubs that grow 8 to 12 feet tall and wide. These viburnums have white flowers in spring. By late summer they produce bright red berries that will remain on the shrubs into winter. Birds will eventually eat the berries, but my yard there are sometimes berries left on the bushes into spring. These shrubs are hardy in USDA Zones 4 to 8.
Shrub Dogwood: Most gardeners are familiar with tree dogwoods such as flowering dogwood (Cornus florida). However, there are a number of native bush dogwoods that are great landscape plants. The gray dogwood (C. racemosa) grows up to 15 feet tall, likes wet soils, and produces white flowers and fruits. It’s hardy in Zones 4 to 8. Pacific dogwood (C. nuttallii) produces orange-red berries in fall and is hardy in Zones 7 to 9. Silky dogwood (C. amomum) has blue berries, grows up to 10 feet tall, and is hardy in Zones 4 to 8.
Holly: Of course, the queens of berry production are the hollies. Hollies can be evergreen or deciduous depending on the variety and are generally hardy to USDA Zone 5. They produce bright orange, red, or yellow berries that last well into winter.