Adding a few well-chosen plants to your garden can bring you an extended season of beauty. Additionally, many of the most beautiful heavy-fruiting shrubs can be a boon to wildlife.  Here are two of the best of the best for fall and winter fruit show.

Callicarpa spp. -Beautyberry
Beautyberry is a relaxed-looking open shrub valued for its spectacular fruits.  During the growing season this unassuming charmer  keeps mostly to itself until it explodes with colorful fruit as weather cools.  Different beautyberries (Callicarpa) grow throughout the world, with many calling Asia, North America and Australia home. One of the easiest beautyberries to find commercially is Callicarpa americana.  Native from Tennessee southward to Texas and across to Florida, this plant is a tough variety that is very adaptable to any part of the state.

Beautyberry FACTS:
Family: Verbenaceae
Genus: Callicarpa (cal-i-CAR-puh) – In Greek kallos means beauty, carpos means fruit.
Size: In their native habitats, some beautyberries can grow to be small trees. American beautyberry most often grows three to five feet tall and usually just as wide.
Culture: Plant in full sun for optimum fruit production and fall color — part shade is okay but it will inhibit berry production. Grows best in well-drained soil.
Problems: Very trouble free with the chance of minor leaf spot. Callicarpa can get gangly over time – rejuvenate by pruning low to the ground in late winter.

Read more when you pick up the September issue of At Home Tennessee magazine.