Three Berry Green Natives

Evergreens are a necessity in the native garden, and a treat for Southern California hikers in late summer and fall.  Let me introduce you to three of my favorites, elegant and very prunable shrubs that provide a backdrop of reliable green for the ever-changing native garden, and interesting berries too. They are Toyon, Lemonadeberry, and Coffeeberry.

Toyon around Christmas can hold its own with any exotic ornamental.

 The native garden needs a backdrop of reliable green, and sometimes a "living wall" to hide fences, compost piles, or the neighbor's windows.  Many of our natives have gotten a scruffy in summer, and won't get their groove on till a month or more after the first fall rain.  (Though who knows what will happen this year with all the heat and rain...)  Some native annuals and perennials have disappeared entirely, hopefully to pop up again in winter. But these three evergreens keep shining though summer and fall.

Toyon provides filtered shade and a backdrop for native shrubs in this Old Town San Diego garden.

Toyon, or Christmasberry (Heteromeles arbutifolia) is the tallest-growing of these three green staples. The vivid serrated leaves and red berries fooled Easterners into thinking holly decorated the hills north of L.A.,  giving the town of Hollywood its name.  Toyon is one of our most versatile natives.  It grows in most soil types, in full sun or full shade.  It is one of few California natives that is widely used in the nursery trade, probably because it often puts up with regular summer watering.  Yet it will prosper with no supplemental water when established.  While it sometimes can be persuaded to be a single-trunked tree, it usually produces several trunks growing at interesting angles and a variety of heights. Prune it all you like for size, but don't pin your hopes on a given plant ever providing an elegant sillhouette.  Its bright red berries dress up your yard just in time for Christmas.  Use Toyon as a supporting actor: the gawky guy in the back who dresses up nice for Christmas.

A lemonadeberry hedge is a great backdrop for silver-leafed natives like this bladderpod  (photo taken at UCI in February)

Lemonadeberry (Rhus integrifolia) is almost the sole evergreen on the native bluffs in Crystal Cove State Park.  Not the holly green of Toyon, a little more olive in tone.  Still, against the brown hills in summer it looks lush.  Not quite as versatile as Toyon, Lemonadeberry likes sun but will put up with a good deal of shade, likes summer dry but puts up with weekly water if well drained.  Lemonadeberry grows only near the Southern California coast, because it dies back in hard frosts.  If you live north or inland (or if you prefer a more sculptural form) choose its sister, Sugarbush (Rhus ovata), instead.

These curious reddish "berries" come naturally coated with the tart gel that gives Lemonadeberry its name.  

Lemonadeberry is long-lived and eminently prunable.  (And if you overwater it, or with copious rain, you may be pruning a lot!)  It can be very lanky and tall if not pruned, but makes a great 4-6 foot hedge, or a larger backdrop.  Trim it to fit the space.  You can amuse children by letting them suck on the "inside-out" fuzzy red-grey berries– actually seeds coated with a tart gel.  Its berries and flowers are rarely showy, but Lemonadeberry is a class act 365 days a year.

Coffeeberry 'Mound San Bruno' looking lush outside my Dining Room window.  It happily bursts forth with new shoots after every good rain, but takes repeated pruning well.

Coffeeberry (Frangula californica) can be the essence of native elegance.  It comes in a variety of shapes, sizes, leaf form and color, and preferred growing conditions. Know your cultivars!  That is, find a grownup of the named variety you like before committing yourself.  My favorite is 'Mound San Bruno.' Its dense forest-green foliage and ability to tolerate either summer dry or weekly water (well drained) make it a great backdrop for any garden, but especially the coastal native flower border.   Coffeeberry tolerates sun to shade and heavy pruning, but some varieties will not tolerate summer water at all.  Its flowers are almost invisible, but its shiny red-to-black berries offer a subtle, and occasionally striking, accent.

Coffee berries are classy: dark and glossy-- some are reddish in tone.  (Photo courtesy of Las Pilitas Nursery.)

Want berries for food?  Sorry, these are not your berries.  Toyon berries can be cooked to make them edible, but I haven't heard them described as a taste sensation.  Why not save them for the birds?  You can make "lemonade" out of lemonadeberries easily enough– a great project for curious kids.  And adventurous souls have made "coffee" out of coffeeberries.  They are said to be laxatives... so I'll save those for the birds too.

A happy Toyon can grow large. This one is in our HOA common area.  Scott is at right for scale.

Want to plant these paragons?  Don't wait.  Get them in by January so they can get established.  Don't bother buying pots larger than five gallons, because roots in a big pot don't do natives much good.  They need to spread their roots out in the soil to be ready for dry summer.  The fifteen gallons of organic fluff that comes with a larger plant, aside from making a very expensive potted plant, is eventual death by root rot to most natives anyway.  Plant now, then be patient.  Toyon may bolt the first year, but the other berries may take two or three years before you add them to your "needs pruning yet again!" list.

Stay tuned for planting directions, more on individual species, and more.

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