Purple BeautyberryCallicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii
(kal-ee-KAR-puh)
This picture is from Friday. I thought people might like to see the more widely grown Purple Beautyberry. I found it listed under several different names so I just used the one I have always known it as Callicarpa bodinieri. It is a hardy, fun plant to grow and the color of the berries is something that you just don’t see. I actually prune mine down a little in the late winter/early spring to keep them neat and not to tall. They never seem to have any problems or want extra water so the care is easy. I haven’t tried to root cuttings but I have had some seedlings popping up here and there but not so many as to be unmanageable.
Not my finest hour with a camera but I wanted to show the full view of the beautiful berries.
This picture was taken a month ago and is Purple Smoke Tree (Cotinus coggygria) against a nice blue sky and some yellow Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) leaves. Smoke Tree is another fun plant to have and it adds a lot of color to the garden. One of my gardening heroes, Christopher Lloyd advocated planting the Smoke Tree in borders and cutting down to the ground each year. I have done that and it works well I also like it as an open shrubby tree in the right spot. There are several cultivars and I like the ones with the darkest foliage the best. It gets its name from the panicles of wispy bloomed flowers in the summer. They kind of resemble smoke.I could go on about both of these plants, as they are both worth growing, but don’t really feel like writing. I am just trying to keep up my daily routine for now.
