by Mary Salinas | Oct 21, 2014
This autumn you may notice shrubs with long, arching branches sporting clusters of shiny purple berries. That beautiful sight is the Beautyberry, or Callicarpa americana. This native is found throughout Florida and the southern United States, west into Texas and north to Tennessee and Virginia.
Beautyberry in the fall. Photo credit: Mary Derrick, UF IFAS Extension.
In the spring, lavender flowers adorn the branches and are a favorite of bees. The flowers eventually give way to the shiny purple berries in the fall. Birds find the berries very attractive and will feast on them when found. Mockingbirds and cardinals are especially fond of them. If you plant this shrub for the birds, one or two plants will provide more than enough of the berries to satisfy their appetites.
Beautyberry is adaptable to a wide variety of soils and moisture. After it gets established it is drought tolerant, however it can also do well in a moist area. A spot in your garden that gets partial sun is a perfect location. Plants in too much sun sometimes get a bit yellow and those in too much shade get leggy and don’t set as much fruit. Beautyberry is deciduous, meaning that it will lose all its leaves in the winter. Therefore, you may want to place it in an area of your yard where it won’t be a focal point in the winter.
This lovely plant is usually readily available at independent nurseries. If you prefer to grow your own, beautyberry is easy to propagate and grows rapidly. Snip off an approximate 6-inch piece from the end of a stem; the cut piece should have 5 sets of leaves. Snip off the bottom 2 sets of leaves – this part of the stem will be in the soil and roots will emerge from where the leaves were removed. Also snip off the top of the stem to include the top set of leaves. Your cutting will end up with only 2 sets of leaves. Immediately put the cutting in a good potting soil, making sure that the lower part of the stem where the 2 sets of leaves were removed is below the soil line. Keep the soil moist as the cutting develops a good root system.
You and the birds will enjoy this lovely shrub for years to come!
by Gary Knox | Aug 19, 2014
A new IPM guide is making it easier to grow five common southeastern shrubs. Growing five southeastern shrubs is now easier thanks to a free, new IPM resource from the Southern Nursery IPM Working Group.
IPM for Shrubs in Southeastern U.S. Nursery Production is a compilation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) information for five major shrubs in nursery crop production in the southeast. This 175 page book covers sustainable management for insects, mites, diseases, and weeds for these shrubs, as well as nursery production information. This IPM resource was developed for nursery growers although professional landscape managers and collectors of these plants also will find the information valuable.
Individual chapters cover abelia (Abelia spp.), camellia (Camellia spp.), shrub rose (Rosa spp.), blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) and viburnum (Viburnum spp.). Each chapter provides comprehensive information on the species, primary cultivars and their nursery production. Major pests, diseases, weeds and abiotic disorders are presented for each genus along with sustainable management methods and tables listing labeled pesticides and fungicides by mode of action and site. An additional chapter discusses weed management in shrub production. Future volumes covering additional shrubs are anticipated.
Edited by Clemson University’s Sarah A. White and University of Tennessee’s William E. Klingeman, this free guide was developed by the Southern Nursery IPM Working Group, including University of Florida NFREC’s Gary Knox and Mathews Paret. The award-winning, multi-disciplinary group is composed of experts from universities across the southeast. This group formed in 2008 to develop and deliver educational programming to the southern U.S. nursery industry and Extension personnel. The team recently won the 2014 Bright Idea Award from the Friends of Southern IPM and Southern IPM Center.
This resource joins the tree IPM book previously released by this group, IPM for Select Deciduous Trees in Southeastern US Nursery Production. The tree IPM book is similar to the new resource in that it contains IPM information for insects, mites, diseases, and weeds of nine major tree crops as well as production information. Individual chapters cover birch (Betula spp.), cherry (Prunus spp.), crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia spp.), dogwood (Cornus spp.), chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia), magnolia (Magnolia spp.), maple (Acer spp.), oak (Quercus spp.) and redbud (Cercis spp.).
Both books can be downloaded free through iTunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) or each chapter is available as a free pdf through the Southern Nursery IPM Working Group website, http://wiki.bugwood.org/SNIPM. A limited number of hardcopy books were printed and distributed to authors. Thanks to the Southern Region IPM Center for their generous support to make this resource possible!
