Genus: Callicarpa
Common Name: Beauty Berry
Family: Verbenaceae
Appearance: Spreading arching shrub with attractive berries usually borne over winter, some can become sparse and straggly without pruning.
Flowers: Insignificant flower clusters precede attractive pink, lavender or white berries.
Features: Graceful looking plant with colourful berries. Used in floristry.
Requirements: Requires rich, well drained moist soils. Good ventilation, full or filtered sun, for most avoid shade. Not for hot dry locations. Tolerates wind very well.
Culture: Full sun to part shade, prune to induce foliage and flowers, fertilise with a high phosphorus and potassium content fertiliser. Water regularly. Propagate by seed and cuttings.
Pest & Disease: Beetles - use carbaryl.
Species & Varieties:
Approximately 135 species, including:
C. americana (Beauty Bush/French Mulberry) -To 3m high and wide with large leaves which are wooly beneath. Dramatic clusters of lavender to violet berries during winter months.
C. americana var. lactea -A white berry variety.
C. Bodinieri (C. giraldiana) -Shrub to 3m, with 12-15cm long elliptic or oblong toothed leaves, lilac flowers in spring followed by violet coloured fruits in summer.
C. cana -Grows 1 to 2m tall, small green flowers, attractive white berries.
C. candicans -Tall shrub with arching frame, blue-mauve flowers and purple berries.
C. longifolia -To 3m tall, attractive bright green foliage, white flowers and clusters of white berries, will grow in full shade.
C. pedunculata -To 2.5m tall, attractive foliage, pink to purple flowers and purple berries.