Denny's Soapbox

Make it Pretty, but Edible

Shopping for a new tree or shrub this fall? Adding new plants to our landscape can be both fun and rewarding. There are many benefits to consider when selecting new plants for your landscape. There’s the overall size, foliage color, location, and flower color. Selecting new plants wisely can give us non-stop color throughout the growing season. Shrubs like Knock Out™ roses will provide constant color starting in May and all the way into November. Is there anything else to consider? Yes there is.

There is another environmental benefit that should be considered. I’m talking about selecting certain plants that will not only provide yard color and interest, but are also living bird feeders. Certain plants provide nourishment for birds in late winter when all other natural sources of food are extremely scarce. Birds are extremely beneficial in a variety of ways to your landscape. Evergreen trees and shrubs offer another benefit providing good shelter. All plants provide limbs to perch on.

Flying Pesticides

One of the greatest benefits to having birds in your landscape is that they are flying pesticides. There are many varieties of birds that feed on insects during the growing season. Many of these same insects feed on your plants and on you i.e. Mosquitoes.

Inviting birds into your landscape during the spring and summer means having them around fall and winter too. There are several ways to catch the attention of birds so they will visit your home frequently. Place bird feeders around the outside of your home filled with bird food as a year round way to attract birds to your landscape. Adding fruiting trees and shrubs to your landscape is another way of attracting birds.

Flowering Trees

There are certain types of birds like Robins that prefer fruit over sunflower seed. Finches, Blue Birds, Chickadees and Nut Hatches are always looking for bugs, seeds and berries. The following are some great ornamental plants that will help the various birds dietary needs.

The most bird friendly flowering tree family is the Flowering Crab Apple. I’m listing newer varieties with Crab Apples that don’t prematurely fall to the ground in late summer or fall like the trees grandma grew. I’m talking about new varieties that give not only added color, color that provides great spring appeal in your landscape but also has fruit that remains on the tree until the birds clean the fruit off in late winter, usually in February. Any fruit missed by the birds still does not fall but will totally dehydrate on the tree.

The following is a shopping list of the best Crab Apple varieties listing spring bloom color, overall growing size and mature fruit color.

‘Donald Wyman’ – upright growing to 20 ft. high and wide, red to pink flower buds opening into white flowers in mid-April, bright red fruit in the fall.

‘Prairifire’ – upright growing to 20 ft high and wide, red flower buds opening into pink flowers shaped like roses, dark red to purple fruit in the fall.

‘Prairirose’ – rounded, medium size tree growing 15 ft. high and wide, deep pink flowers in the spring with orange-red fruit in the fall.

‘Red Jade’ – weeping branches on a tree that grows 10 ft. tall and wide, pink flower buds that open to white flowers, bright small, red fruit in the fall.

‘Sargent’ – dwarf growing crab that grows only 6 to 8 ft tall and wide, pink flower buds in spring that open to white flowers, loads of bright red fruit in the fall.

‘Sugar Tyme’ – grows to 20 ft high and wide, pink flower buds opening to white flowers, orange-red fruit in the fall.

Other great flowering trees with fall fruit for the birds are Winter King Hawthorn, Florida Dogwood, Chinese Dogwood, and Aristocrat Pear. In fact, Dogwood berries of all varieties are high in fat and yield a lot of energy for the fall migration of many birds.

Flowering Shrubs

There are flowering shrubs, both evergreen and deciduous that provides wonderful food in the way of berries for the birds. The following are their favorites.

Taxus (Japanese Yews), American Holly, Blue Holly, China Holly and Junipers.

Viburnum (many varieties to choose from), Bayberry, Nandina, Euonymus, Bush Dogwood, Cotoneaster (by variety), Liriope and Beauty Berry.

There are other shrubs that have some fruit but not a lot. Varieties such as Privet, Japanese Barberry, and Burning Bush. Let’s call these snacks and not a real meal for the birds.

So, as you plan for more plants in your landscape, include some food for the birds. They will stay in landscapes year round that have the food to attract them.