Most of Connecticut is firmly established in hardiness zone 6 when it comes to plants. Recently while reading I came across growing red fruit plants in the garden. There were so many I did not know about. The strawberry tree, Lingonnberry, Bunchberry are just a few. tried to grow The Red Chokeberry ( Aronia arbutfolia in the garden. It has white to pink flowers in the spring. The bright red pear shaped berries appear in the Fall. This fruit is edible The pectin rich fruit is great for jams and jellies
This is very important. No matter how delicious the fruits of these bushes/trees look you MUST RESIST in tasting them Some red berries are toxic Before harvesting the fruit , you must identify the plant and confirm the berries are nontoxic ad safe to eat
Other berries that grow hardy in zone 6 are Chinese evergreen dogwood, Silverbuffaloberry, Bearberry cotonesaver and Redlake currant. There is the Amrican Holly. I have two in the front of my house The iconic red berries appear from September to December and always complement the spine shaped leaves. I keep them short as bushes but American Holly ( also known as Christmas Holly) can grow up to 60 feet tall.
I plant these for the many birds as they snack on the fruit. These are good pollinators for my bees also when flowers bloom/ Some of the birds that snack are cedar waxwings, bluebirds, yellow warblers, and even woodpeckers.
Untiil tomorrow…