Snowberry Especially Pretty Now
By Jos Van Hage
Sunday, November 09, 2008 03:00 AM
Snowberry (Symphoricarpos) is a shrub that might go slightly unnoticed during the spring and summer, but it certainly stands out now.
This shrub produces pretty, white shiny berries that cling to the fine branches throughout the fall and into the early winter. They are most evident now, when all the foliage has fallen off and all that remains is the berries on the bare branches. The berries are not edible and even the birds don’t eat them which is one of the reasons they remain on the branches for such a long period of time.
Snowberry is a native plant to North America and to the Prince George area. They grow alongside trembling aspen, wolf willow and Saskatoon bushes which is where I have them growing in my yard. The native peoples would call them ‘ghost berries’ or ‘corpse berries’ and would sometimes make brooms out of the fine branches.
Snowberry is an easy plant to grow and requires very little care. They grow well in sun or shade and thrive in all soils and tolerate drought. They are suckering plants which mean that shoots come cup from the root and so they spread quite easily and fill in any gaps you may have in the landscape. They are good for growing on a slope as they help stabilize the soil with their roots.
Because they grow well in the shade they are an excellent choice for growing under tall trees as they only grow from 2-5 feet tall, and they are also are ideal for naturalizing an area in the landscape. These easy to grow plants do not need any pruning and the only problem they may have is powdery mildew. If this becomes a problem you should give the shrub better air circulation by pruning some of the middle stems out of the plant and giving it more sunshine if there is too much shade.
Although, they are very pretty right now they are also an attractive plant in the spring and summer. The green leaves are oval shaped and grow opposite which means that they are in pairs on the branch with a space between each pair. In the summer the branches produce clusters of tiny bell-shaped pinkish white flowers that grow on the branches tips and which later become the shiny white berries.
If you are looking for an easy growing, attractive shrub that will grow almost anywhere in the landscape then you should try planting a snowberry!
- Jos
Jos van Hage owns and operates two Art Knapp garden centres in Prince George:
- Highwy 97 north at Northwood Pulpmill road
- Highway 16 west at Kimball Road
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