Here's a photo of my Callicarpa. Unfortunately, I'm not sure which one it is, perhaps someone out there can identify. Picture taken today in my Pacific NW garden. Berries persist throughout the winter.

I've seen Callicarpa in coastal NH, which is probably zone 6. I have resisted trying Callicarpa since it has a reputation for seeding around in some areas and I have enough invasives already on this old farm.

I have one. I cut it back to short stubs and it has re-sprouted with vigor, but still too small to produce berries.
Seeing one in fruit for the first time was quite a surprise to me.
Nice plant, Zephyrgal!
I'm quite a bit further north than you. I know what you meant though. Most of Washington State is farther north than most of Maine, but we have the prevailing winds off the Pacific Ocean and the warm Japanese current giving us a maritime climate.
Mike...Zone 8

Thanks. One notion I had-and probably not my final thought on the subject-would be to use the plant as a "cut-down" shrub or in effect, a hardy perennial, assuming growth from the ground would yield a fruit-bearing plant in one growing season. In that scenario, it would matter only that the root system stay alive through winter.

I'm in Z5 here. We had a very cold winter last year, of course, but again, if I did as described above, the fruit display, which is the point of growing the plant in my scheme, would still be there.....maybe!

+oM

Oh, didn't see you there, Mike. So you are, in your much milder climate, doing the cut-down thing, and apparently with only fairly meager results so far? Hmmm...is it that the plant doesn't reach the stage of sufficient maturity to flower/fruit? How long have you had yours, Mike?

Another thought-maybe I should just be content to enjoy the plant when in the south, like early next month when I will be in Fort Myers! There, amidst the slash pines, cabbage palms, and saw palmettos, this purple-fruiting bush is really quite amazing.

+oM

I've had the plant for about ten years. It didn't produce many berries and the Fall color was not real good. The problem was that it was in too much shade and getting shadier so I moved it to a sunnier place with no available water. I didn't get a good rootball, so I cut it back almost to the ground and didn't care if it lived or died. It has responded quit well with new sprouts. I would post a picture, but I'm in western Oregon right now and won't be home until tomorrow. My wife and I have been gone for two weeks. So far my house sitters haven't burned the place down.
Callicarpa does just fine here and doesn't need to be cut back at all. I have a friend who has one just a few miles away and hers is always covered in blue berries in the Fall. Even Zephyergal's has a lot of berries and she is located on the mild Oregon coast.
Callicarpa is a striking shrub and should be more widely grown where it will survive.
Mike

Agree with that last statement; Were I in an appropriate locale-and with C. dichotoma I might just be-I'd be trying to find ways to use it. Blew me away when first I noticed the native version all over S. Florida. Never knew about this thing whatsoever. Thanks Mike.

+oM

Tom, I have a few 'Amethyst' and they have done fine for years. I cut them down in early spring to about a foot. Mine are all about six feet in all directions at least and berry profusely. Berries hang on for a long time, it always amazes me how many shrubs I have with berries that the birds don't eat! However, after about six or so years maturity the seedlings were coming up at a pretty heavy clip. You must pull them when they're first year and tiny or get a backhoe! LOL!

Also, they are very, very, very (did I say very) late to leaf out. When you think it's dead, give it another 3-4 weeks, and then, give it even more time!

I never cut them down before spring because sometimes you get lucky over the winter with this.........plus, there's enough to do in fall!
{{gwi:283297}}
This pic was January one year, so you can see how long berries hang on.

It's a great shrub if you have the space. Good luck!

Thanks again, thyme 2! as we appear to be following one another around the GW forums! Your input is most helpful as you, like I, come from a decidedly northern locale. We're looking for upwards of 24 inches of snow to fall in our northern counties today/tonight, albeit that's not quite where I'm at. But north...........oh yeah.

I'm liking this idea more as I think about it. I will probably not opt to subject my customers or my municipality (My employer) to my Callicarpa madness, but rather, just for my own use somewhere in a corner of the yard. I just really fell in love with these things when down in Fort Myers area over the past couple of years. Again, that's a different species, but the overall effect is largely one and the same.

More than one plant needed-of two differing cultivars-to get good fruit set?

+oM

Here's a thread from a few months ago discussing the self-sowing of Callicarpa.

Here is a link that might be useful: Callicarpa self-sower?

after last winters z4 ... here in z5 MI ...

i found my neighbor has this plant.. growing wildly ... completely protected from the prevailing NW winter winds.. on a south facing wall.. under a maple ... so no direct warm winter sun .. just a few hours at dawn ...

and she cant beat it back with a stick ...

i had never seen one in person.. in MI ... in my entire life ... garden life.. lol...

she did not cut it down last year.. and regrets it ... and will go at it much harder.. next spring ...

i suppose the end of that equation is micro climate ...

ken

I had one for years in Toronto, Ont. (z 6a?).
I moved, but took some seeds/fruit with me & planted in fall 2013 - & got few seedlings. Seeds were in pot, outside in new location (z5a). I am hoping that at least 1-2 will survive comming winter. I think it is very nice shrub.
Birds don't like fruit too much, but I did see cardinals & crossbill on it occasionally, and even robins...(read somewhere that the birds will eat the fruit if nothing else is available-but I always feed birds!)
It seeded quite well in TO, but seedlings are easy to pull out if you do it early.
Rina

(ps: I had only one plant & it had plenty of berries - did read somewhere that there should be another to pollinate?)

This post was edited by rina_ on Mon, Nov 10, 14 at 19:49

While I know exactly what you mean by "how far north", Tom, you may be surprised to know I probably have you all beat with that regard :-) All of Wisconsin, Michigan and Toronto, Ottowa, Quebec City and Montreal are all further south than me! I am on a latitude equal to the nothern portion of New Brunswick. While the logic seems completely there, further north does not necessarily translate into colder.

And yes, beautyberry grows beautifully here, as Mike and Zephyrgal have already indicated, so I guess the proper question would be "how darn cold?" as opposed to "how far north?"

Tom, I had a single shrub growing and fruiting beautifully for years before I found a spot for a couple more. I did not cut it back for years and it did get quite unruly after about five years. Also, after harsh winters with heavy snow load it would get pretty broken up. For the past few years I have cut them all back and their form is much nicer. I can't say they are smaller, they just look a little less rangy when I cut them back.

Thanks all. Just when this wild hare (hair?) of mine was simmering down, you've got me excited again (as only a plant geek can get excited)!

I think I do indeed have a spot in my postage-stamp yard to spot one-probably the dichotoma-may as well improve my odds of success.

As to birds eating or not eating the fruits, it reminds me of a good many fruiting trees and shrubs I've either had in my own yard over the years, or watched elsewhere........take Sorbus for example. My tree would feature those nice orange fruits for months on end. Then in one day, some migrant bird flock would come in and clean them out completely. To my way of thinking, such "starvation" food is every bit as important as oil sunflower seeds, etc. Maybe more so.

But what I do know for sure is those cascading purple fruits are unlike anything else I've ever seen in the plant world. And while it took a trip to S. Florida to turn the light on, now that I (think I) know I can grow it up here, or reasonable facsimile thereof, that will be the plan.

My yard really is tiny, and it is completely stocked with plant life. I have one and exactly one little spot where a shrub could go, made empty by an even more extreme attempt at zone-pushing, that of having tried a Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Oregon Blue' in that corner, just prior to the coldest winter in decades to hit! That little tree didn't make it, nor did the other three I planted at still-colder Z4 land I oiwn up north, nor at slightly more mild Z5 yard of my son, about 100 miles S. I think this Callicarpa has a better chance!

+oM

i forgot to mention ... in the few years the neighbor has had it.. we have had significant snow cover ...

we speculated whether a milder winter with no snow cover.. light cause a loss ... as there is the potential for the soil to go in and out of dormancy.. breaking my #1 rule.. of get anything dormant.. keep it dormant ...

i presumed you meant north zone cold.. not gals literal who is north most.. lol .. darn PNW.. sneaking north of the UP of MI . ... lol...

ken

The berries will last all winter and add lots of color. Even frozen/shrunk, they still are colorful.
I believe there are cultivars with white berries too.
I have used branches with berries for winter outdoor containers, they are really good for that too.
Flowers are relatively small, but pretty.
I had a clematis growing thru it, early blooming.
Young shoots have bronze-purple color.
It did grow bit taller than most often suggested 6'.
In the photo you see it's taller than the 6'fence, but little less than a foot.
Now I am wanting my old garden back...Rina

Hi again Rina-didn't see you here 'til just now. Tell me, do you happen to know the exact identity of the Callicarpa you had? Maybe you've already stated such-I don't know, but if so, would you mind refreshing my/our memory?

As to the north/south aspect of various states, yes, of course I know my geography. Having once spent a summer on Vancouver Island, I've got a pretty good feel for the PNW. Heck, if one would wish to brag about how far north they are, any one of our British or N. European comrades could outdo us here. Even southern Europe is as far north as places like Wisconsin, albeit the climatic aspects can be quite different. But yeah, I know all that stuff-no need to make such a deal of it. But I warrant, if I took any one of you to my land in Oconto County, Wisconsin, you and I could agree as we looked upon the white pine, northern white cedar, and paper birch, we would be "up north". I don't consider my home, about twenty miles south of Green Bay, to be up north though, and it's not. If anything, we're properly considered to be in East-Central Wisconsin, for whatever that's worth. My interest in starting this thread was and remains an attempt to elucidate the cold-hardiness of the various species within Callicarpa. I think we're doing a pretty good job of it too!

+oM

I hope you didn't think I was bragging!! I don't consider my location very northerly even if it is.....except maybe in summer when our sun is pretty weak compared to the rest of the US. I once did a road trip that included a visit to Duluth, MN over the Labor Day weekend. They had frost. I was appalled :-)) Now, I consider that north!

I guess it's just a matter of holding on to a compass direction as a reflection of cold or warm when in fact it is all relative. I do it myself........I had to look up a location in Maine because I couldn't believe the zone listing it had. A zone 7 in Maine?? (which I most often think of in its winter dress of umpteen feet of snow). But sure enough, north or not, the Gulf Stream has an amazingly moderating influence on coastal temps. As it does with the UK and its even more northerly reaches.

+oM

I had Callicarpa dichtoma 'Amethyst' (I believe correct name is 'Early Amethyst'). This one is supposed to be hardy to z5.
I moved about 60km north from Toronto, Ont., z6a (listed as -10F). Zone here is listed as 5b (-15F). I have been watching temps here since I moved (April 2014), but I didn't spent winter here yet. I think it will be cooler here than -15F? - will see (that's why I use 5b here...I should be more optimistic!!!)
I mentioned few seedlings I planted - the seeds were planted in fall of 2013, and I left pot in new location over the winter. I did get few to grow, they are very small. Will see what happens to them over tis winter.

Rina

Tom, you have to go with Coralberry in our climate.

It's all good, Gal. I've oft noted the less than clearcut "northerlieness" of varied locations, like your Maine example.........and depending on which type of map one is viewing, the various types of distortions necessary to fitting all the land masses on the flat sheet of paper.....can even distort this further. But no matter.

Whaas, I like Symphoricarpos too, although I do know of some folks having that plant in their gardens wishing they didn't, what with the vigorously stoloniferous habit it has. Guess it all goes down to where you have it and what you are trying to accomplish. But you're right-it is very reminiscent of the shrub genus in discussion here. I'd be more inclined to use coralberry where I wanted straight-up colonization of a portion of a site, in other words, a more naturalistic planting. I think it is native to our part of the world as well. For that matter, the white-fruited Symphoricarpos alba is quite nice too.

Rina, I have to admit, I see Toronto and other Canada words in your posts and get the idea we're in similar climactic conditions, but we're still colder here, never rising above a Z5 designation. Then there's years like last year, where cold-hardiness is really put to the test here. We shall see. This is a fun topic for discussion, but that's really about all it is at this point!

+om

Yes Tom, you are right about temps.
Last winter was probably colder by at least a zone for most. (And on top of it, US zones are slightly different than Canadian...so I pay more attention to min temps for the zone. It could be still confusing thou.)
I hope I didn't get 'too involved' in discussion (here & on your other thread too...) - I really don't have that much experience & knowledge & am not trying to preach - just about what I have grown.

Rina

Certainly not! Even though I consider this board to be a "hobbyist" place, I have learned much over the years. Everyone's contributions are worthy (Except for those that aren't, lol) and it can be surprising where exactly some tidbit of info can originate.

We're going to get quite the start to having our ground freeze in this part of the state, having just missed the big snowfall to our north. I know of at least two places in the state that picked up more than 20 inches of snow the other day, but we remain bare ground here. My land where my tree farm is got quite a bit-I think, haven't been up there yet this week-so the 1000's of young trees we've got started up there will once again begin the winter covered by snow. Yeah!

+oM

They have fruiting specimens at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, zone 4, in a fairly open location in their shrub exhibit.

Even after last year's brutal winter, I saw a plant covered in fruits this Sept.

Thanks Nick. Did you happen to note a cultivar name? At any rate, I think this warrants a trial run with these things.

+oM

Callicarpa americana naturally occurs in Arkansas and Missourri, at the zone 6a and 5b area to it's farthest north reach. I'd say you can try to plant some in spring and see if it winters over...but they DO leaf out really late so don't give up too early.

In southern CT I have only seen the cultivar bodinieri var. profusion which has smaller purple berries. Still attractive but in my view a bit less showy than the larger berried calicarpa Americana. Would like to know if americana would survive and prosper in zone 6a or 5.

Thanks to dbarron and jackbe1 for the later comments. I've been travelling and generally away from the interwebs for the past month or so. As to Callicarpa, I did again see some nice ones in and near Fort Myers, FL! If anything, one of the more amazing things (for me) is to be standing in a grove of trees at say, the Corkscrew Swamp, and to be looking at American elm, red maple, maybe some pickerel weed in the shallows......in other words, all plants which are native to Wisconsin as well! Quite amazing.

The Callicarpa thing will probably go dormant in my brain again for a while. I've really no place to put any more shrubs, unless I go to my "big yard" up north and do some shrub planting. That could happen.

+oM