Shrubs and bushes are flexible plants in a home landscape, useful as accent plants, in the event of tall bushes, as specimens, either implanted alone or as a standout plant from the back of a border. Choosing a flowering bush, especially one that produces berries, may add a spot of color that could last for months.
Yellow or Orange Berries
The saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) is a relatively small, hardy palm that generally reaches up to 8 feet, with a spread that may cover 20 feet. It bears clusters of white blossoms, followed by hanging groups of bright yellow berries. The saw palmetto grows well in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 8 through 10. The scarlet firethorn (Pyracantha coccinea) is just another landscape shrub, covering itself in white blossoms in May that are followed by bright orange berries. It grows up to 18 feet tall with abundant thorns and is a very low maintenance plant suitable for growing in USDA zones 6 through 9.
Purple Berries
The beautyberry (Callicarpa bodinieri) is really a stunning bush, covering itself from lavender flowers from June to August and adhering to these with showy clusters of bright, shiny violet-to-purple berries in September and October. Reaching a height of 4 to 6 ft and an equal spread, beautyberry is suitable for growing in USDA zones 6 through 8. The American elder (Sambucus canadensis) is just another illustration of a flowering shrub that bears purple berries. Best grown in USDA zones 3 through 9, elder bushes can achieve a height of 12 feet, bearing umbrella-shaped groups of little white fragrant flowers in June and July, and dark purple edible berries following in late summer and autumn.
White Berries
Some flowering bushes provide berries that are either white, or in some instances that a whitish-green. One of these, the red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea “Allemans”) is named not for its flower or berry color but for the glowing red of its divisions, seen best during winter. The 5-foot-tall shrub bears clusters of white blossoms in spring, followed by whitish bird-attracting ornamental berries in late summer. It grows best in USDA zones 5 through 8. Deerberry (Vaccimium stamineum) is just another attractive shrub that sometimes reaches a height of 15 feet at maturity and shows interesting, contorted and twisted trunks. Its blossoms resemble tiny shaving brushes, with white petals and fluffy yellow stamens, and its berries are white with bluish overtones; it also is suitable for USDA zones 5 through 9.
Red Berries
Heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) is a Indian indigenous that’s suitable for growing in USDA zones 6 through 9; its height ranges from 3 to 8 feet, depending on the variety. A highly decorative plant, it also offers copper-colored leaves in spring, followed by tiny white flowers in June and spectacular sprays of hundreds of red berries that persist from drop to the next spring. The chokeberry plant (Aronia arbutifolia) offers abundant red berries. Growing to a height of 6 to 10 feet, it follows pink or white flowers in April with dense clusters of shiny red, edible but quite tart berries that remain on the shrub into winter. It’s best suited for USDA zones 4 through 9.