Southern Indiana Living SeptOct 2012

A Walk in the Garden
with Bob Hill
Southern Indiana gardeners who
have endured this summer’s heat
and drought – and are now perhaps
looking over their shoulders
for the advancing plague of locusts – can
Ànd solace in one shrub in their autumn
gardens that always lives up to its name,
the beautyberry.
Not surprisingly the beautyberry’s
Latin name is Callicarpa, from the Greek
“kallos” for beautiful and “carpa” for
fruit. Along with that beauty it’s easily
planted from containers, needs only average
soil, can take full sun to light shade
and oers great, arching clusters of stunning
metallic-purple berries that will
stop Àrst-time viewers in their tracks.
In fact, here at Hidden Hill Nursery
that’s exactly the way it’s used; as a show
stopper; a What-is-THAT? plant. Planted
in groups in the shrub border, or to be
seen as you round a corner wondering
what might come next, the eect is even
stronger.
Good gardens should reward the owners
– and the guests. If beautyberries
planted near the deciduous hollies (Ilex
verticillata) such as “Winter Red” with
its stunning red fruit in late fall, the combination
might even allow you to forget
– at least temporarily – the July-August
water bills.
The key to making all that work is to
think about that parade of fall color when
planning the garden in March and April.
It takes a little training. The beautyberry
is quiet then; you’d never buy one in a
nursery or online unless you knew what
promises it would keep that fall.
The beautyberry does o er some small
pinkish-white Áowers in early summer,
but it’s mostly mute, even nondescript
as the other shrubs kick in; roses, viburnums,
spirea and hydrangeas. So don’t
plant it near the front door; just pick the
best spot in the yard where it can be enjoyed
later. Then, just when you need
late-summer color the spectacular purple
fruit appears.
The beautyberry is also user friendly.
It blooms on new wood making the
pruning very easy; just cut it back in the
spring. If you want your shrubs to reach
their full, arching six-foot potential keep
the pruners away for a year or two – but
eventually it will need to be trimmed,
shaped or, yes, taken down to knee level
for a total rejuvenation.
We all sort of need that anyway.
The shrub does require well-drained
soil. Beyond that it’s carefree; very few
diseases or insects will bother it. When
the berries fade in late fall after about a
month of glory, just trim them o or cut
back the plant.
There are four di erent species of
beautyberry o ering di erent shades of
purple, or clustered in di erent ways.
There are even white ones, although I’ve
never found them as interesting or attractive.
The American beautyberry (Callicarpa
americana) – a native – is loose, open and
has bright purple berries, but is borderline
hardy here. The more colorful species
are the Asian cultivars; japonica from
Japan and dichotoma and bodinieri from
China. My favorites are of the dichotoma
species.
Of those, look for the “Early Amethyst”
Photo courtesy Lady Bird
Johnson WildÀower Center,
Joseph A. Marcus
Beautyberries:
Perfect name for a perfect plant
which produces a smaller purple berry a
little earlier, and the “Issai,” my favorite,
which o ers hundreds of those metallicpurple
berries on mounded shrubs.
A newer cultivar, “Duet,” has variegated
foliage with white berries – which
does make the plant more interesting
during its formative stages – and may be
able to sing for its supper.
The bodinieri cultivar “Profusion” is
even more erect, up to 10 feet in height,
with glossy bluish fruit that will gather
in clumps along the stems rather than in
long, graceful purple pearls.
If you want a nice mix – and some
more enduring color – mix in some Early
Amethyst with the other cultivars.
Then you can go pay your water bills.
Bob Hill owns
Hidden Hill
Nursery and can
be reached at
farmerbob@
hiddenhillnursery.
com.
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