9 Plants That Dazzle in Autumn

Want to add some late season dazzle to your garden? Consider planting trees and shrubs with decorative berries to help to give autumn its special beauty. Plus, the berries are an important food source for migrating and winter resident birds.

To help guide your planting efforts, we’ve outlined some of the plants that can be incorporated into your landscape for the autumn months. These selections give a diverse interest from showy bark, colorful branches, dark green foliage, berries and autumn flowering.

Winter Berry

A hardy deciduous native shrub, it is one of this season’s best berry plants. Large clusters of vivid red fall ripening berries hang abundantly along its woody stems. Only the female plants bear fruit, so be sure to plant a male for pollination. The male plant is best situated nearby in the background, away from your main garden viewing areas.

Hollies

These are the most recognizable plant for fall and winter berries. In this region, most hollies retain their berries through the winter.

Green Hawthorn

Unlike most other hawthorns, Green Hawthorn is bedecked with brilliant red fruit upon its silvery frame. The red fruits start forming in early fall and persist through most of the winter.

Viburnums

Viburnums offer striking bluish-to-black, red or yellow fruits through October. They are also noteworthy for their wonderful fall color.

Oregon Grape Holly

The Oregon Grape Holly is a native shrub with foliage that resembles holly, yet it isn’t closely related. Instead, it is in the barberry family. This pristine plant, with its yellow flowers that become blue-black berries, is held in high regard for its disease resistance, drought tolerance and year-round interest.

Heavenly Bamboo

Heavenly Bamboo has bamboo-like stalks and delicate, ferny foliage. It is also in the barberry family. The large clusters of bright red berries can persist through most of the winter and are perfect for holiday arrangements. Some excellent new shorter cultivars are also available.

Beautyberry

Beautyberry is a dramatic native of Japan, China and Taiwan. This lovely shrub is known for its late-season display of deep purple berries clustered along tall, arching stems. A white berry species is also available. If you can get to them before the birds do, the berry-laden branches are lovely in fall and holiday arrangements.

Elderberry

Elderberry bears blackish, red berries in the fall on which birds feast. They can be used to make jellies, pies, juice and even elderberry wine.

Crabapple

Crabapple are small flowering trees with red, yellow, orange or green berry-like fruit less than two inches in size. The trees have various growth habits and many of the new cultivars are resistant to fireblight, cedar apple rust and apple scab.

Happy planting, and we hope you enjoy your landscapes dazzles!

Contributed by The Hershey Gardens. For more information, visit www.HersheyGardens.org.