The Gardens on Spring Creek

  Blooming … Berries? By Ben Stickland  By this time of year, many of us gardeners are already mourning the peak of summer when it felt like everything was vibrant and lush. Now, the warm colors of fall are taking over and most of our showiest bloomers are getting ready for winter. But if you peruse the garden on an October day, you will still see pops of color from a quintessential part of fall: fruits! This week, we are going to highlight some fruits that are taking over for the flowers and keeping the garden interesting and beautiful for autumn.   Callicarpa dichotoma  (beautyberry) The plant that inspired this article with just how beautiful its berries are (turns out they aren’t true berries), was the beautyberry. Callicarpa is a genus of plants native to many parts of the world, but this particular species comes from China, Korea and Japan. It is a compact shrub, typically growing 3-5 feet in height and spread, that has a slight weeping habit. It does well in a...