It has been my ambition to have red fruits adding to our garden’s fall and winter appeal, particularly in the shade garden in back.
My main plant for achieving this goal was supposed to be Cranberrybush Viburnum (Viburnum trilobum). On this score, the effort was a complete failure, mainly because squirrels eat all the fruit in late summer as soon as they get a hint of red. Apparently they have not read that the fruit is supposed to be unpalatable until after a freeze or two, though squirrels are not known for their delicate palates.
(Though I should point out that otherwise Cranberrybush Viburnum is still an admirable shrub.)
It’s still possible to find red fruits in our garden, however. Except that you have to look down, not up.
Most notably, we have the red berries of Solomon’s Plume (Maianthemum racemosum). This is a handsome plant with frothy white flowers in spring. My only complaint is that the arching stems tend to flop with the weight of the ripe berries, despite my attempts to provide discrete assistance.
This year, though we did manage to avoid total floppiness.
There’s also a close cousin of Solomon’s Plume, Starry Solomon’s Plume (Maianthemum stellatum). This is a shorter plant, not quite as elegant, but without any floppy tendencies.
Earlier in summer, Starry Solomon’s Plume berries are green with interesting dark stripes.
The spring flowers are attractive. I should make clear that both of these plants are best in the shade garden.
There are some other plants with red fruits in the garden. Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) has red berries but songbirds eat them by early September, so no winter interest there. I don’t begrudge the songbirds, this is partly why I planted Spicebush. The ‘Donald Wyman’ Crabapple has long-lasting red fruits most years but this year it had almost no fruits at all.
Also, this year I added a couple of Red Chokeberries (Aronia arbutifolia). They’re still quite small, though, so I’m waiting to see how they do.
Do you have favorite plants for red fruits lasting into fall and winter?
gardeninacity 
The squirrels don’t seem to eat our winterberry berries …
Lucky!
Squirrels are almost as bad as rabbits. The notion of red berries for winter is a great idea — too bad the squirrels and birds think so too.
Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) fruit is bright red and lasts until late winter / early spring.
You have berries? Mine disappeared before I even enjoyed them. I thought the wind was blowing one day but it was just the squirrels crawling on the branches!
Squirrels can be very noisy! They race around on the roof of our sun porch sounding like a herd of elephants.
I have a beautiful thornless Russian hawthorn tree growing in the middle of my patio. In the spring it’s loaded with fragrant white flowers and now it’s covered in red berries. A lot of them will stay on the tree over the winter. The birds do not eat them, but the squirrels and my two dogs love them! I have it (and my two crabtrees) sprayed every spring for cedar apple rust or it would leafless by June.
My Sargent Crab isn’t exactly a shrub, but it seems to hold its berries for quite a while. Doesn’t seem to be a favorite of many birds. Some years the cedar waxwings will eat them. I’m happy when they get eaten, but I’d prefer the birds over the squirrels. I like your other suggestions. I’ve had a spice bush in the past but it didn’t do very well. Maybe something to try in a new spot.
We’ve only had cedar waxwings in the yard a couple of times, although I understand they are in the area. I’d love to see them more.
I’ve only had them a few times, but so beautiful. I wish they’d come more often.
I have winterberry and that’s about it. Hope you are doing well.
Yes, I have winterberry too. This year I trimmed back the male too soon tho. So there aren’t many berries. It could be that or how dry or possibly a combo. I have spicebush too. It is a young shrub and has never made berries. Hopefully next year. It will be the second full year here.
Gardening requires a lot of patience!
Unfortunately, I haven’t found a late berry shrub to recommend (that can fit in my small yard). I learned too late that the Red Jewel crabapple we planted does not appeal to birds.
I don’t, but I sure enjoyed seeing yours.
The Solomon’s plume berries are so lovely this year. I was actually in the yard taking photos of a friend who came by, and got distracted by the berries because they were such gorgeous shades of red/ purple/ mauve/ deep rose – whatever that color is.
Beautiful!
We have Grevillias which have red flowers almost all year. The local birds are very dependant on them, and I’ve grown to love them.
I’m going to need to follow more Australian blogs, now that we’re moving into fall here! It’s cheery to see your flowers! You must be in an area with mild winters to have the red flowers almost all year.
I think I’ve seen them in visits to gardens on the West Coast.
Yes, we saw many familiar flowers and plants to our region when we were travelling in California.
Hope all goes well with your treatment.
These are beautiful bushes and quite new to me. How drought hardy are they? The only red berries I have in the garden are cotoneasters as they are very drought hardy and our birds eat them. We have also planted a Malus Evereste last autumn for the birds in winter. Amelia
The Starry Solomon’s Plume is fairly drought tolerant once established. (It is herbaceous.) The others less so.
Hopefully the red chokeberries perform for you! I have no advice to impart as the only red berries in my garden at this stage are the invasive honeysuckles that I’m trying to get rid of!
Feh on invasive honeysuckle.
You have quite a few beautiful berried plants in your garden! I have several things with berries: choke cherry shrubs (birds ignore!!!), dogwoods, American beauty bush (the deer completely demolished all the berries in one night), burning bush (cardinals love the berries). Oh, and some sort of arum with a berry stalk just like jack-in-the-pulpit. Guess that’s it.
I have tried to grow Beauty Bush but it doesn’t seem to be hardy here.
The spice bush berries are particularly striking. Beautiful brilliant scarlet!
Here we have the native California shrub Heteromeles arbutifolia. One of the common names is “Christmas Berry” because the fruit reds up in December. Some years Cedar Waxwings will come in a flock and strip the plant of its berries in just a day, but we don’t get that many Cedar Waxwings this close to the ocean, so the Robins eventually get them. Coyotes will eat them too, when the rabbit population is at its lowest.
Unfortunately, the berries disappear pretty fast down the gullets of the song birds.
I have a Brandywine Viburnum which has lots of salmon colored berries that are ignored by all. They dry to a dark purple and then, in late winter early spring, Robins and Cedar Waxwings strip it bare. I have seen 12 Robins in the bush at one time.
I’m reluctant to try any other Viburnums as I expect that the squirrels will strip all the fruit early.
We have the same problem… the birds eat everything as soon as it is barely ripe and then there is no colour left for us! We wanted to harvest some rosehips this year, but the birds have already started eating them, so we will let them enjoy them. One berry that seems to hang around longer is the European Euonymus (Spindle tree). The berry capsules are a lovely pink and then they open to reveal orange seeds. The capsules sometimes remain on the tree all winter and look like little Christmas tree decorations!
I think we have a similar Euonymous species called Strawberrybush or Eastern Wahoo. I should consider getting one.
The berries on my chokeberry are purple, not red. The ‘Prairie Fire’ crabapple has red berries, while ‘Perfect Purple’ has purple ones.. ‘Winter King’ hawthorn tree produces orange berries that remain untouched until late winter when the robins emerge from the nearby woods. Of course, the serviceberry fruit is long gone, as is most of the berries on the ‘Wentworth’ highbush cranberry (which is HUGE, btw). There are a few red berries left on the cotoneaster – I think rabbits like them. I’ve watched bluebirds and robins feed on pokeweed berries, which are purple. I’m not sure red has any advantage over purple or orange as far a birds are concerned.
I always mix up chokeberry and chokecherry, but I actually have both. The chokecherry (Prunus) fruit is purple though my chokecherry has never had fruit! My little chokeberry (Aronia) has red fruits at the moment, but maybe they will turn purple.
I share your wish for red berries in the garden. We have quite a few crabapples still, but they’re dropping fast. The Cedar Waxwings are enjoying them. We also have Viburnum trilobum and Solomon’s Plume. The former varies in its ability to hold its berries from year to year. Sometimes the squirrels eat most of them; other years, they last into winter. Maybe it depends on the quality and quantity of the acorns and hickory nuts from the other trees. Solomon’s Plume and the starry cousin are winners all the way around.
Most years the crab ‘Donald Wyman’ holds red fruits through winter, but this year it had almost no fruit or flowers.
What a shame that the squirrels strip the berries so quickly, it’s the same here with cherries. The only berries that last around here are the rowan and holly.xxx
We have a native holly called winterberry. Only thing is it is so dull during every season except winter.
Last weekend, I found several sort of berries in the woods: beautyberry, Jack-in-the-pulpit, Carolina buckthorn, peppervine. Some, like those on our palmettos, already are gone; there’s nothing left but nubs. I’ve not yet seen a yaupon with ripe berries; it’s either too early, or the early birds got their fill.
I remember plentiful Yaupon berries from a Christmas visit to South Carolina.
Hello Jason, we would have berries, but between humans and birds, they’ve al be stripped. The Amalanchier berries barely get a chance to ripen, we never see the red currants, but we do manage the odd raspberry along with lots of blackberries and wineberries. Right now, we only have a few colouring rose hips in the garden – so not great but it’s a case of “talk to the wildlife”.