Winter can be a tough season for wildlife to find solid food . It can also be dismay for gardeners when they gaze at a gray and brown and sometimes snowy landscape painting for months . One solution is to plantevergreens . Additionally , there are a smattering of shrubs , vines and trees that produce colourful berries in Autumn that run well into wintertime . The fruits provide an important source of food for wildlife and colouration to perk up the winter view .

Mountain Ash

Mountain Ash is a native tree of Eastern North America that raise from Canada to Georgia . It produces small white flowers in outflow followed by heavy clusters of small red berries in August that hang on well into wintertime . Usually growing to a scoop top of 40 metrical unit , Mountain Ash is a dearie of birds year round and provides an important origin of nutrients for them in winter when trivial else is uncommitted .

Beautyberry

Beautyberryis a deciduous bush that produces shot purple berry in fall . The beautiful berry will last well into wintertime or until wildlife deplete them . In North America , thenative plantchoice is American Beautyberry . The Asian diversity looks almost identical , but its berries grow on stems and not in the leaf axils as they do on the American . The shrubs ’ foliage is deep dark-green all year and only mildly interesting . But in Autumn the show start when the green berries show their color and wildlife , especially birds , devour them .

Crabapples (aka Crab Apples)

Crabapples are a remarkably versatile specie of tree . Their spring - blooming , lightly fragrant prime appear in a variety of colors from white-hot , promiscuous garden pink , rose - pink , reddish and carmine . Crab apple foliage varies from idle green to purpurate . Crab apples bear red , orangish , maroon or yellow fruit at different times reckon on the variety . select a native variety for your region that bear its fruit through winter because it ’s an authoritative winter food source for some specie of birds . According to Penn State Extension , “ bird opt the smaller - fruited varieties , and will run through some variety in wintertime and save the sour ones for early spring when other solid food sources are scarce . Some of the bird that depend on crab apple let in Erithacus rubecola , cardinals , pecker , fairy bluebird , cedarwood waxwing , towhees , Mimus polyglotktos and tufted titmice . ”

Holly

What would the wintertime landscape be without its most famous plant , Holly?The most prolific manufacturer of red berries in the holly family happen to be aboriginal to North America : Winterberry Holly . It ’s not evergreen plant like the hollies you may be familiar with : the leaves discharge , but it produces droves of berries that wildlife devour . If you want a classical holly with inscrutable - green evergreen plant foliage and smart red Chuck Berry ( or orange , yellowed or black ) , there are more than 780 species to select from that range from 6 inch to tall to over 70 feet ( ! ) . Choose an appropriate variety for your area ( they can be uprise USDA regions 3 - 11 , every province of the U.S. ) , and situation conditions , and bear in mind that you ’ll have to plant 1 male plant for 1 - 10 female plants .

American Bittersweet

American Bittersweet is aclimbing , twining vinethat farm bright red berries in Autumn that may last into winter . As with Holly , a male and female must be implant near each other to grow yield . Not to be confused with the Asian mixture , Oriental Bittersweet , which is view invading .

Hawthorns

There are more than 380 variety of Hawthorns , from denseshrubs to trees , and usually with thorns . “ Winter King ” , aka Green Hawthorn , is an excellent choice for a landscape tree . It grow 25 - 35 feet , has spineless varieties , produces beautiful blooms in outflow , with red fruit that mature in September and endure into wintertime .

Black Chokeberry

This intrepid deciduous shrub is much easier to mange than its cousin that produces red Charles Edward Berry . Black Chokeberry fruit initiate to break in mid to previous summer and within 2 week the branch flag with hard clump of fruit . However , wench and most wildlife tend to avoid them , so they ’re stringently for visual interest .

source : North Carolina State Extension , Celastrus scandens ; Penn State Extension , There ’s A Flowering Crapapple for that ! ; Piedmont Master Gardeners , Winterberry Holly ; Missouri Botanical Garden , Crataegusviridis‘Winter Martin Luther King ’ ; Chicago Botanic Garden , Black Chokeberry .