Plant Native: Coralberry

Coralberry is a dense, multi-stemmed shrub that can be planted as a groundcover, border shrub or under-story plant. Although it performs well in full sun, it is important to place this plant in a location where it won’t bake during the summer. It does best in part shade or shade. This sprawling shrub is useful for erosion control and will attract valuable wildlife to the garden, especially pollinating insects. In the summer tiny white flowers with pink accents bloom in clusters over a long period on the outer tips of the plant. Though they’re small, they attract a myriad of bees, flies and especially the common thread-waisted wasps, like the black and yellow mud dauber. Caterpillars of the clearwing moths feed on its foliage and the dense growth habit provides great winter cover for birds and other small animals.

Coralberry, Symphoricarpos orbiculatus Height: 2-4’ Spread: 3-6’ Sun: full sun to part shade Water: Medium to Dry

In the fall, bright purple-pink berries cluster among the leaves on the tips of the branches. The fruit clusters weigh the stem tips down, creating a beautiful arching affect. After a hard freeze, the leaves will fall and leave the berries to stand alone as a colorful focal point. To really appreciate the coralberry, you need to see it in the winter landscape.

Prune coralberries back in late winter if you want to keep them as a low and bushy ground cover. If they get too leggy, they can be cut back to the ground. Coralberry can cover a large area easily by forming low stems that grow along the ground and re-root where a node of a branch touches the ground, which can be quite a spread.