Planting shrubs that bear fruit is a great way to add beauty to your yard and to add some delicious flavor options to your garden. If you've wanted to add some fruit bushes to your landscape, now is the perfect time to do it.
Fall is a great time to plant any trees and shrubs, but it's especially great for fruit-bearing trees and bushes. Fall weather is usually a little cooler, and it's after the fruiting season is over. So your plants can focus their growing energy on just developing a strong and healthy root system. If planted in the spring, they have to split their energy between growing roots, producing leaves, and sometimes fruit as well, though some shrubs will not produce fruit in their first year. By planting in the fall, you may give them enough of a head start to produce a tasty fruit harvest next summer.
Here are 6 fruit-bearing shrubs for Greenville, NC, that you can plant right now.
Little Miss Figgy Fig
This dwarf fig can be grown as a shrub or pruned to be more of a tree. It does spread quite a bit, and features large beautiful leaves, and delicious figs. As this fig ages, it's bark gets gnarled and turns silvery, and becomes very ornamental. The figs are usually ready in late summer on new wood. You only need one of these, because they don't require cross-pollination to bear fruit.
Southern Living's Takes the Cake Blueberries
This blueberry produces its delicious fruit in late spring. The berries are large and tasty. Other benefits of this shrub include its tidy growth habit, pest resistance, and the long shelf life of its berries. It is also low maintenance and features pretty colored fall leaves. You do need multiple blueberry bushes for cross-pollination, and more than one variety is recommended for best fruit production.
Sunshine Blue Blueberry
Is as beautiful as its berries are delicious. This is a semi-dwarf blueberry and has low chill requirements. It features small silvery green leaves, masses of pretty pink flowers followed by loads of berries, and then beautiful shades of red and purple foliage in the fall. The berries are small, sweet, juicy, and very dark-colored.
Proven Winners Red Zeppelin® Goji Berry
Goji berries are surprisingly easy to grow, and this variety makes it even easier. Its berries are larger than other varieties, making them easy to spot and harvest. Give them full sun, and they'll be thrilled. Goji's have a vining habit, so they'll do best with a sturdy stake, and then secure the vines to the stake about ¾ of the way up, letting the top ¼ drape. Goji berries are sweetest when dried, which can be done in the sun or with a dehydrator.
Proven Winners Peppy Le Pom™
Is a beautiful dwarf pomegranate with some of the brightest orange flowers you'll ever see on a plant. While it does produce fruit, they're pretty tiny, so you may want to grow it ornamentally. This pomegranate can easily be grown in a pot in colder climates, and it has beautiful fall colors.
Pineapple Guava
Is technically a fruiting evergreen tree or shrub. However, it rarely produces fruit. But, it is a handsome tree or shrub, and it produces pretty white and red tropical flowers that are edible. The flowers contrast nicely with the grayish-green foliage. This is an excellent choice to train as topiary, espalier, or hedge. This tree is also quite happy to grow in containers.
If you'd like to add any of these beautiful fruit-bearing shrubs to your landscape this fall, stop by the garden center and have a look at what is available.
If you'd like to add any of these beautiful fruit-bearing shrubs to your landscape this fall, stop by the garden center and have a look at what is available.
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