The Wisconsin Gardener

cc >> Trees and shrubs enhance any garden, and many of them are essential if you're trying to attract birds to your backyard. We're at the University of Wisconsin-Madison arboretum, and I'm with arboretum naturalist, Ken Wood. Today we're talking about trees and shrubs that bear fruit in the fall. Ken, tell us about this one that we're in front of. This is gorgeous. >> This is our native deciduous holly. It's called Winterberry. This is a great one for attracting birds to the yard in the later part of the summer and through a good part of the fall. >> This is native, so I'm assuming it does well throughout the entire state. >> It's hardy throughout the state, right. >> Beautiful spring flowers, or not? >> It has flowers that you'd never notice. They're tiny, little flowers. The fall color is not anything spectacular. In fact, it's actually basic black. >> Oh, boy. >> But this fruit, and the contrast with the leaves before the leaves turn, and then after the leaves drop, they drop fairly rapidly. >> Then you've got just these showy berries. >> Just the showy fruit, right. It's just a wonderful looking plant in the landscape. >> What birds east this? >> Robins, ceder waxwings, I think particularly some of the other thrushes, wood thrushes, hermit thrushes, that are migrating through later, in October or November. >> So these berries stay on for awhile. >> They stay for a while, yeah. Not indefinitely. If the birds don't eat them, they'll drop off by mid-November. >> So, showy up unitl about December. What do I have to do to keep something like this happy in my yard? >> Winterberries prefer a slightly acidic soil. They're native in fairly wet areas, so I wouldn't plant them in a really dry spot. They adapt well. They come in a variety of cultivars. We're doing trials on several cultivars here. This is a preferred one here. It's called Red Sprite. >> Okay. >> I guess the reason for preferring it is that it's modest in height and fairly tight. >> It's fairly low growing here. >> The catch with Winterberries is that they come in boys and girls. >> So we need more than one. >> Pollen bearing plants and fruit bearing plants, right. So for every, oh, four or five fruit bearing plants, you want to be sure to have a pollen bearing one. For this cultivar, the Red Sprite, the recommended pollen bearing plant is Jim Dandy. >> And that's our male pollinator than. >> Right. >> Is this a full sun plant? >> Definitely full sun. >> Are there any things that will that will attract birds to a yard that has more shade? >> There are good things for shade. >> You know, this is one of my favorites in my yard. But this one, Ken, is about three times the size as the one I've got. >> Well, this is Pagoda Dogwood. It's a shrub that's almost a tree. A tree that's almost a shrub. >> This one's much older than mine too. >> This is an old one, but it still has the layered character of a typical Pagoda Dogwood. >> Almost an oriental, delicate appearance to it. >> A nice shape really. Yeah, this is a really good, old plant. It's not suckering. It doesn't become argessive in a small yard. >> So it's a good one for the home landscape. And as we said, it tolerates the shade. >> It's very tolerant of shade. It has superb fall color. >> Beautiful leaves. >> A nice maroon and sometimes orangy. >> It also has fruit early in the year. We've missed it here. >> Right. It flowers and fruits above the stems. It shows off fairly well when it flowers in late May, then the flowers become a blue fruit. >> They really stand out nicely. >> Right. Displayed there, not only for our show, but for the birds. >> That's, what? Late August for the fruit? >> Usually mid to late August. By early September it's usually gone. >> Birds eat it. Which ones? >> Cat birds, all of the thrushes, Ceder Waxwings, sometimes some of the woodpeckers. >> A great variety. >> A good assortment of birds will use it. >> What do I have to do to keep it happy in my yard? >> Pagoda Dogwood likes what we call a cool soil situation, not a hot, dry spot. >> Okay. >> It does well on the north side of a house. Up on the edge of a woodland. It's a common native woodland species in Wisconsin. >> It's hardy throughout Wisconsin. >> It's hardy throughout the state. >> Let's look at another one that's really hardy for the entire state. >> Fine. This is Showy Mountain Ash. It's a commom native, especially in the northern part of the state, but throughout the state. It's very winter hardy. It has no problems with cold. >> Excellent. What's the age, or the lifespan I should say, of a tree like this? >> This is a small tree. They usually only live, typically for Mountain Ashes, 15-20 years, something like that. >> So we're looking at the full size here. >> This is a full-size tree, right. >> Why would I want to grow something like this? >> It's got flowers in the late spring, fairly good fall color, and especially this neat fruit display. >> This glowing orange, incredible fruit! >> It's got a wonderful fruit display, which just happens to be designed for birds. >> I'm not the only one that's going to like these, huh? >> Right. Especially the robins and Ceder waxwings. They really, really enjoy this tree. >> You told me a story about Ceder waxwings and what they do to this tree. >> I've heard people say that they have a wonderful display of Mountain Ash fruit in their yard and almost in a day or two and flock of Ceder waxwings will strip the fruit. They really love it. >> Entertaining to watch too. >> Right. >> That's were we have lots of activity with birds. Is that mid-winter we're talking about? >> In a suburban setting where that aren't as many birds around it might last until January, or something like that. >> So then we can enjoy it longer too. >> Right. >> What do I do to keep this tree happy in my yard? >> Mountain Ashes are one of those cool soil plants. They like soils that aren't hot and dry. So planting it on the north side of a house where the top of the plant gets good sunlight for flowering and fruiting, but the root zone is sheltered. Or planting with shrubbery around the base of the plant to help shelter the soil is a good thing. >> Okay. >> But you know, I've got another plant that you wouldn't even think of as having fruit that's useful for birds. >> Let's go look at that. >> You know, Ken, I love birches, but I would never consider planting one to provide food for birds. >> But hiding up there amongst the leaves there are these catkins which have little scales on them. Under each tiny scale is a tiny, little seed that's really attrative to Redpolls, goldfinches, purple finches. They hang there all winter. Normally, they'll fall and skid around in the snow. >> So they're readily availible even in deep snow then too. >> Right, right. >> Birches are great to have in the yard. They're so pretty. >> They're native, common throughout the state, very hardy. >> Good idea. Thanks Ken. Consider the trees and shrubs we've talked about to enhance your backyard garden, and to attract birds.