Beauty Berry
Callicarpa giraldii
Grown for the clustered violet berries, which need a second plant nearby before they set properly.
Light Happy in full sun or light shade.
Water Drought-tolerant once it has settled in.
Height 2 m
Spread 5 ft 11 in
Spacing 180 cm
Root depth 12–24 in
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Purple and violet
- Sunlight
- Happy in full sun or light shade.
- Watering
- Drought-tolerant once it has settled in.
- Feeding
- A balanced fertilizer in spring.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- July
- Pruning
- Cut it hard back to 15-30 cm every April.
- Overwintering
- Hardy enough to leave in the ground through a normal winter.
- Apr–May Bud Break
- May–Jul Spring Growth
- Jul–Oct Flowering
- Oct–Nov Growing
- Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Apr Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 5 ft 11 in
- In-row spacing
- 5 ft 11 in
- Between rows
- 7 ft 5 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody and fibrous
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 9–12 ft across, about 1.5–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A shallow woody framework with the fine feeding roots in the leaf litter above it. Those feeders are mostly under the outer half of the canopy rather than against the stem, which is where water and feed should go.
The habit is Beauty Berry’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Leaf spot Leaf spot through a wet summer
- Frost damage Late frost damage to the shoots as they break
- A poor set of berries when there is nothing nearby to cross-pollinate it
Shrubs, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com