Snowberry
Symphoricarpos albus
Grows in anything from full sun to deep shade, and repays that tolerance by suckering wherever it isn't watched.
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- White
- Sunlight
- Anything from full sun to deep shade.
- Watering
- Drought-tolerant once established.
- Feeding
- Rarely needs feeding.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- June
- Pruning
- Prune in late winter, pulling suckers as they appear.
- Mar–Jun Bud Break
- Jun–Aug Flowering
- Aug–Oct Fruiting
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar 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
- Running rhizomes
- Working depth
- 4–12 in
- Can reach
- 18 in down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 12–24 ft across, about 2–4× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 12 in of soil
It travels underground, and it does not stop where you would like it to. Taking the tops off does nothing at all to the run, and every fragment left behind is a new plant. In open ground the only boundary that holds is a barrier sunk two spits deep, or a container with its rim standing clear of the soil.
It suckers into a dense thicket and is very hard to remove once established, which is why it turns up in old hedgerows long after the garden that planted it has gone.
The habit is Snowberry’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.
- Generally trouble-free No notable pest or disease problems when grown in the right conditions — one of the easy ones.
Hawthorn, Dog rose, Holly
Green-leaved shrubs, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com