Beautyberry and Intro

Hello, I am new to this Forum, and pretty new to Dave's Garden. I spend about half time in a little house in North Carolina, and half time on a boat with my husband and our rowdy dog Toby, (an Entlebucher - thus my name: Entlie), so I have to be careful about what I plant because I'm not here all the time to tend things. I lived in Scott County, Kentucky, before I moved here about three years ago. Completed the Master Gardener course there - it was wonderful, and I'd like to do it here sometime, if I can work it out with life and sailing. We live in a development that is booming.

So here's my discussion:

There is a lovely crop of Beautyberry bushes (American Beautyberry) at the end of our little cul-de-sac. These have beautiful light green leaves and the start of the beautiful purple berries along the stem that they sported in the fall last year. Here's a link to NC State University information and photo regarding Beautyberry:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/native/callicarpa_americana.html

I am pretty careful not to harvest things out of the wild that should be allowed to live there, but some folks have bought two lots and a house will be started there in the next few weeks. I have dug about 6 of these out - mostly small, and one large, and moved them to my garden, in an area at the back of my lot with tall pines and natural mulch.

Even though shaded by the pines until about noon, the afternoon sun angles in and it has been bloody hot here. I have been having to water them every day, or they droop something terrible. They probably don't get much more sun than they did in their original spot. I am tempted to stop all this extra watering and see if they can put some roots down and stop throwing these little fits, especially since we are now into September and hopefully will have some cooler days.

Any suggestions?

Is anyone growiing these?

Do you cut them down in the fall? Some information I saw on the Internet recommended this. However, they seem to do fine in their natural state without a fall clip.

Looking forward to participating in this forum. Sweetbay Magnolias are another topic I'd like to chat about later.

Entlie

Entlie,

Welcome to DG. You will like it here a lot. I may be able to help a little with the Beautyberry issue.

One of our DG friends brought me a small bush and I planted it immediately in a place that gets full sun year around. It's only been a week. I have tried to remember to water it everyday if it doesn't rain first. It seems to be doing fine. No droopies. But I don't believe she transplanted this do there was no ripping or cutting of roots involved.

I suspect you will have to continue giving daily water until yours gets over the transplant shock. I'd venture to say, 2-3 weeks. After that, it should settle in and be happy.

I have been given 2 of these by DG friends and planted them here on my sand hill and they have survived that....and me. As for pruning them, I come from S Florida and I am new to gardening in the cooler winters. I have to learn about pruning and all that very soon.

Molly
:^)))

Welcome, Entlie. Like Molly said, this is a good group of people.

My experience with beautyberry involved waiting for two years for the berries and then having it disappear over the winter, but we do get fairly harsh winters here. I think probably the pruning would be up to how you want them to look, and whether or not they appear to need pruning, lots of dead wood etc. mine died back to the roots the year that it did winter over. Again, probably more to do with my zone 5 garden than beautyberries in general.

Entlie:

Welcome aboard, from a current resident of Scott County KY! I have conversed with Sstateham here on DG; I think she related that she was somehow connected with this part of the world. I live on 10 acres east of town since 1990 (not far from the Double Stink Hog Farm); where did you used to live? I can see why you chose coastal NC; not many sailing opportunities around Stamping Ground, or Muddy Ford, or Biddle.

I taught some of the woody plant sections for Mark Sutton in the Master Gardener series; I hope that wasn't the reason you packed up and left.

As far as your Callicarpa americana go...did you transplant them dormant or in full leaf? If in full leaf, then you are most likely going to have the "wilties" until they go dormant this fall. The shrubs produced leaves in response to the amount of roots that they had to support them. By transplanting, you left some (most) of those roots behind, thus leaving many fewer roots to support the full complement of leaves. The wilties are a result of less water uptake ability. Giving the plants some shade and keeping it evenly moist will help get them through to dormancy.

I commend you on the "plant rescue"; that's much different than simply collecting plants from the wild. Saving things from bulldozers is laudable. Once the neighbors get done scraping/trenching/grading, and they start admiring your beautyberries, you can re-introduce them to "their" home.

I wait till new leaves break in the spring before I do any pruning to my established beautyberries; if there is dead wood or twigs, that gets clipped. If the plants exhibit vigorous new young stems, then I might prune out some of the older less vigorous branches or prune for habit. I have these planted in a full sun location and in a shaded location. The full sun plants flower and fruit much more heavily, and are denser more compact individuals.

I have seen this plant in only one place as a native situation, on limestone outcrop slopes in southern TN in the understory in association with Rhus aromatica, Juniperus virginiana, Quercus muehlenbergii, Fraxinus quadrangulata, and Cotinus obovatus. If you are known by your friends and associates, then American beautyberry is a true calciphile.

Save/send/share seeds? I could hunt up something you might be interested in as a trade...viburnums?

Viburnum Valley - Thanks very much for your note. I lived in Mallard Point, north of Georgetown, and I know The Fister Family at the Double Stink, somewhat removed. C.A. did our mowing for years, and I in turn did Becky's graphic ads when she had her flower shop, Hassloch Flowers. A good friend of mine and her husband operate Walstan Farm, across the road from the Double Stink. I am sure you know the origin of the DS name.

I transplanted the Beautyberries in full leaf. I knew a house was scheduled, but thought it would be later in the fall. Then a big truck and a ditchdigger pulled up and parked there over the weekend. I panicked and moved the shrubs, thinking they were getting started. It was a false alarm, but the real construction can't be far into the future, because the owners have emailed they are visiting in October and the house should be underway then.

I wish I could remember if you did the woody plants section of my Master Gardener course, but I can't. I probably did the course in 1997, because as part of my payback, I handled the production end of the 1998 Garden Calendar (with many volunteers from the course contributing the information, art work, etc.) the only year that I know of they produced one. I do remember there was an excellent "bug guy" from UK.

Is the Shooting Star Nursery still operating? I loved their catalog.

We lived on two wooded acres with so many wonderful native plants. Loved the MayApples, Trillium, Arrowhead Ferns, etc. And I remember beautiful Joe Pye Weed growing wild along Burton Pike. However, I must admit that I am happy to be living in Zone 8a, where we can have some relatively hardy palms.

Are you talking about Beautyberry seeds? If so, I'd have to learn how to harvest them - just pick the purple berries? Or would you like to try a couple of plants? There are more in the cul-de-sac just waiting to be destroyed. Maybe they would ship ok. It's not a native, but I also have some houtonnyia, transplanted from Mallard Point, which thrived there and is also going gangbusters here.

I LOVE Viburnums. Had several in Kentucky, but I don't recall the varieties. One was so sweet smelling in the spring, and lived in almost total shade. Others didn't bloom much, but grew tall and stately to block the unused underside of a deck. Just planted two 'Chicago' viburnums, which are doing ok so far but too early to tell.

Thanks again for your response - Look forward to hearing back from you.

Entlie

Beautyberry is very drought tolerant here and will put up with a lot of neglect and poor soil conditions. If you plant it in the fall, it will probably establish itself over the winter and be OK. The first summer it may need more supplemental water. It roots very easily too. Its in the driest part of my yard and has survived well for 15 years (so well its taller than the eaves of a one story house). Just took this pic yesterday to show it works well in a mix of concrete chunks and sand/clay mix the builders left behind.

Glad to know beautyberries are drought tolerant. My transplants are doing well, although I am making sure they get regular water.
Love the photo of your back garden!
Entlie

actally that's the side yard. =)
Right up against the foundation.

Entlie:

Since you transplanted the beautyberries in full leaf, that explains the wilting...but your watering schedule sounds like that should carry them through this year and they ought to grow like mad next year. Good job saving them.

UK does have excellent bug guys; their entomologists are the best.

Shooting Star Nursery is still operating, but the Evans' don't run it any more. They sold to the present owners (who were staff members, I think; Connie?) who are running it now.

As far as save/share/send...just collect the seeds when they are purple and soft (but before the birds take them all). You could distribute them whole, or "clean" them by removing the pulpy purple parts. Store them in ziploc bags in the fridge if you will be keeping them very long, so they don't completely dry out.

I don't think shipping a whole dug plant would work too well, but if there were small ones that you dug dormant and got a lot of roots -- maybe. I think cuttings from semi-hardwood new growth next year would be easy to root, or layering a branch or two to make new plants.

Keep Houttuynia cordata away from me; that's pretty much a pest plant (as far as never dying and nearly impossible to eliminate once established/taking over). I'll enjoy knowing you have it and it's doing well.

I have a number of fragrant viburnums, as well as a slew of other species that have great fruiting/foliage/fall color characteristics. Your Chicago Lustre™ arrowwoods will enjoy having a partner to assist in heavy blue fruiting. I'm growing about 25 different Viburnum dentatum to see which do what the best around KY.

Sorry I missed the opportunity to chat when you were just up here.

VV - I sent you a D-mail. Thanks for the info on saving beautyberry seeds. I might try that.

My transplanted beautyberries are all doing well. Even the wilty ones are lookin' good. There is one more out in the cul-de-sac, and it's the biggest one of all. It's loaded with gorgeous beautyberries now, and quite healthy. Would probably take the pickup to pull it out, and The Captain would probably have to dig a really big hole. I just hate to have the bulldozers get it when the house construction starts there in the next couple of weeks.

Entlie

Update - Well my neighbor took the last beautyberry out of the cul-de-sac, so they are now all saved from the bulldozer. Mine are all doing well, and his looks great in a bare spot that it was made for. The construction is scheduled to start within the next ten days, so we are good to go.

Entlie