I saw a combination several years back that I really like using some form of Callicarpa. In the background were interesting conifers (Blue Spruce cultivars) and tall grasses (thinking Miscanthus but Panicum would also work) and for the front of the plantings they massed long-blooming or interesting perennials that had their peak season of interest earlier on.

The Callicarpa were in the middle of the border and really shone when it was their peak season with the purple berries against glowing yellow fall foliage but for the rest of the year the texture of the evergreens and grasses as the backdrop and the long bloom period of the perennials was enough to generate good interest.

If it were me I would try to break up the texture by using grasses or conifers and then go for something very colorful with either a long bloom period like Cat's Meow Catmint or Junior Walker Catmint or small and colorful like Bonfire Euphorbia or Cinnamon Dolce Coral Bells if they would do well for you. The main idea being breaking up the green of the Callicarpa leaves.

Interesting ideas....the plant is layers upon layers of medium green leaves. REally not much to look at for 6 months, though it is not a fright like kolwitzia (sp) or a neglected spirea.

I´m thinking about other blues besides blue spruces....but I see what youŕ going for with spruces and grasses contrasting texture and form. I am always thinking about adding more confiers, but not for this particular purpose.

Hydrangea Quickfire occurred to me because it starts blooming so early and the color of the flower panicles and leaves are beautiful until hard frost. The leaf is big and more ¨oval¨ as well. I know Quickfire is big, so I´d estimate the area carefully before I put more big shrubs in.

The whole picture would be very bulky.

Regarding perennials, I wonder about sedums. Ive had them for decades, and I never really tire of Matrona. Their fleshy leaves and broccoli-like flower heads might be a good contrast. I have nepeta Joanna Reed, which is a small one, scattered other places and copious amounts of Walkers Low ....

Good ideas. Lots to chew on. Thanks.

Callicarpa are just plain fantastic shrubs, I think! So, @ Select Landscapes, I ask, where did you see the planting(s) you describe? Up here in the upper midwest somewhere? I've often thought about using this genus but honestly, I've only ever seen them in the vicinity of Fort Myers, FL!

+oM

Beautyberry is a hard shrub to work with - as noted, it's primary attraction is the purple fall berries that persist well into winter. The rest of the time it is a large green blob with few redeeming characteristics. If you have the space, it makes a great addition to a mixed shrub border, where its lack of season-long appeal is not so noticeable than if planted as a single specimen. If not the room available for that sort of approach, you can work with a single plant in a similar mixed border situation, where you combine it with other shrubs and perennials that can take center stage and divert attention until the BB comes into its own in late summer/early fall.

Since the shrub flowers on new wood, you can prune as needed in early spring. Many gardeners will prune stems back to 6” in late winter to early
spring each year. Such hard pruning tends to promote shrub compactness
and good flowering. And may even allow room for a second for cross pollination and better berry production.

Thanks, gardengal. You got it. It was a gift from a ¨sister gardener¨ and I´d love to make it work.

I do have a mixed shrub border. It is not estate sized but large enough that now it comfortably holds H.Quickfire, ?perhaps Blue Billow, Twist and Shout, Itea, perennial planting of tiarella; perennial area of June, H. Allgold , ginger and ferns (achoring a river birch which is dying and is coming out in November); fothergilla gardenii; small leaved rhodie or two. Almost in that order.

Another bed, about 8´ deep and 15'long has H. T&S, the newly transplanted callicarpa, and no id .pink flowering hdrangea. Around the curve is chamy. Gold Spray a Fat Albert.

Iḿ interested in your ideas about placement with other shrubs. In order to appreciate effect of its long, flowing stalks against the layered leaves it seems to me it should be pulled forward of the neighboring plants, even if it hides some of their flowers. In principle, hydrangea might meet this need because their flowers wont be commanding the show any longer but might have, along with some varieities´ leaves some color.

,

What do you think?

Marie

Marie, I prefer it as a background shrub. It is just so dense and such a heavy blob of green that it makes a good foil for something less dense and airier in front of it - like the fothergilla or the panicle hydrangeas. Or just about any sort of perennials (except tall grasses). And these will all be well past their prime season once those purple berries start making a statement.

+oM,

It was on a tour of Midwest Groundcovers display gardens maybe 4-5 years ago. I think it was Callicarpa bodinieri 'Profusion'. In October they were around 3' tall and wide. There is also supposed to be a hardy hybrid from the Chicagoland Grows program/Morton Arboretum that is loaded with big berries at the end of the season but it still has not made it into commerce. Saw that Proven Winners has released a hybrid called 'Purple Pearls' I think but have not trialed it yet.

You could probably grow 'Profusion' and Callicarpa americana but both will be die-back shrubs similar to Russian Sage. We've had one Profusion here for probably 15 years and comes back easily each season (even after -25). Is not the prettiest thing in the world but definitely a survivor.

Bruce

Gardengal and -om, thanks.

I know this c. amethyst has made it through several NH winters before it got to me.

GG I´ll try it in back of the panicle hydrangeas. There´s enough room.

Re"grasses you know, after several seasons of cutting back miscanthus in spring I pulled it out. That before I stopped being was wuss about discarding plants that did not please me, so it must have really bugged me.

Though my imagination can visualize grasses with callicarpa, it also visualizes asking my dh to get out the chainsaw or my torturing my arthritic wrist and shoulder with hand clippers. I can´t hold hedge clippers any longer.