 |
Berrying PlantsWinter weather doesn't have to mean a drab landscape. Skip has a bright idea for cold season color. |
||
|
Small File
|
Large File
|
||
| > Real
Player > Quicktime |
> Real
Player > Quicktime |
||
Transcript: Berrying Plants
When winter arrives in our Texas landscapes, things can get kind of bleak. But there’s one great way to brighten up the place, and that’s with berrying plants.Berrying plants are really attractive in the landscape. There are a number of different species we can use. Yaupon is a good example. There’s also one called deciduous yaupon, or possum haw, that loses all its leaves and the exposed berries are absolutely stunning in the landscape. American Beauty Berry does well in semi-shaded areas. And another good choice is pyracantha. You want to watch out for the thorns; pyracantha is also known as fire thorn, and it can be a painful one to prune.
One thing to keep in mind is many of our berrying plants produce berries on last season’s growth, so when you prune them you want to be careful because if you cut away everything that doesn’t have berries, you’ll be removing next year’s berry crop. Prune them only very lightly and do it as early in the season as you can. And keep in mind that berry production wood is very important to carry on into the next year.
Some of the plants also have separate male and female plants. Yaupons and many of the hollies produce separate male and female plants, so when you purchase your plants, purchase one with berries on it to make sure you’re getting a female plant, or you won’t have any berries to show for it.
With your tip for a berry beautiful landscape, I’m Skip Richter.
download
For comments and questions about this site please contact
coleena@tamu.edu
or e-gregory@tamu.edu
Last Updated:
July 6, 2006