# Ornamental Berry Bushes
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Red Berries
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After the yellow flowers, St. John's wort bears clusters of oval red berries. Of the commonly grown shrubs in American gardens, a vast majority develop red berries. Among species widely available and readily producing fruits include the chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia), cotoneaster (Cotoneaster spp.), winterberry (Ilex vomitoria), finetooth holly (Ilex serrata), evergreen holly (Ilex spp.), barberry (Berberis thunbergii), hedge principia (Principia uniflora), alpine currant (Ribes alpinum), marlberry (Ardisia japonica), Japanese aucuba (Aucuba japonica), heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica), St. John's wort (Hypericum spp.), Japanese skimmia (Skimmia japonica) and photinia (Photinia spp.). A few species, such as hollies, are dioecious--male and female flowers occur on separate plants. Both genders must be present in a garden in order for the female flowers to become red berries.
Orange Berries
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Orange is a subjective color, or merely a transition from yellow to red berries. Color is subjective, and often a red-berried shrub may produce fruits someone may call orange-red or dark orange. Often, some shrub species produce berries that aren't blatantly orange, but contain red, gold or brown tones that still make them look much different from the fruits of red-berried shrubs. Orange berries often occur on firethorns (Pyracantha spp.), Alexander's laurel (Danae racemosa), sumacs (Rhus spp.) and buffaloberries (Shepherdia spp.). A few vibrunums attain an orange berry color as they mature from yellow to red, as in the case of American cranberrybush (Viburnum trilobum), Sargent's viburnum (Viburnum sargentii) and European cranberrybush (Viburnum opulus).
Black Berries
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Visually, black berries tend to disappear among dark green leaves and the browns and grays of winter. However, it's from late summer to fall that the berries mature and typically display red, yellow or blue pigments before finally turning black. This is particularly true with many tea olive (Osmanthus) and viburnum species, such as wayfaringtree (Viburnum lantana), linden viburnum (Viburnum dilatatum) and doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum). Many viburnums produce more berries when cross-pollinated by other viburnum species that flower at the same time in spring. Ligustrum (Ligustrum spp.), inkberry (Ilex glabta) and black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) also yield black berries.
Other Colored Berries
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Grapelike berry clusters form on the upright stems of a Mahonia species. Include a few shrubs that produce vibrant pink, blue or purple berries into the garden for a conversation piece. Beautyberry (Callicarpa spp.) is know for rose-violet berry clusters, while Oregon grapes (Mahonia spp.) develop berries with varying shades of robin's egg blue to midnight blue. Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago) fruits are a changeable blend of white, rose and coral-red before turning dark blue. For pure white berries, plant the snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) and metallic pewter blue-gray fruits line the branches on wax myrtle (Myrica pensylvanica) and many shrub junipers (Juniperus spp.).
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