Snowberry Bushes

Winter Color That's Made For The Shade - Snowberry Bushes at Nature Hills!

The Snowberry shrub, botanically known as Symphoricarpos, also commonly called Coralberry (if the fruit is pink), is a deciduous plant with highly ornamental bubbly white or pink berries on a very easy-to-grow flowering shrub that loves the shade!

Other common names for Snowberry are Buckbrush, Indian Currant, Devil's Shoestring, Buckberry, Snapberry, Waxberry, and Turkey Bush! These native shrubs in the Honeysuckle family form a mounded texture to the landscape with pretty, small arching branches.

The greenish-white to dainty pink, pollinator-friendly flowers form along the branches that, with age, develop shredding bark on older wood and brown to purplish branchlets. The new light green leaves over the darker mature green leaves create a pretty dappled shade effect on their own!

This low-growing ornamental shrub produces attractive clusters of bubble-like white berries that remain on the plant through the winter! Packed together close, the non-edible fat fruit stands out as it clings directly against the stem and stands out against the bush’s bare branches.

For a neat winter decoration, use the berry-laden winter stems for indoor floral arrangements. Besides having significant winter interest, it is an important wildlife plant. Songbirds, ground birds, small mammals, and browsers use this plant for food, cover, and nesting. Self-fertile, these hardy shrubs will be filled with unique berries all on their own!

Both native and navitar varieties of Coralberry/Snowberry bushes extend their easy-going informal nature to your landscape! Great in woodland gardens or as a shrub border, these little shrubs easily transition between the sun and shaded border, ramble along slopes beautifully, and add a lyrical beauty to a mixed shrub hedge!

It has a natural look that works well in an informal garden. The shrubs can sucker politely and form low-growing colonies over time, but while in their native habitat, they can form extensively naturalized groupings, rooting where the branching touches the ground. These kinds of suckering shrubs are fantastic for erosion control and filling hard-to-mow hillsides!

Caring For Showy Snowberry Bushes

Snowberry is an excellent plant for a shady area. Avoid planting Symphoricarpos in full sun or harsh afternoon sun areas, preferring afternoon shade, dappled shade, and full shade in the hottest of their favored hardiness zones. Snowberry bushes tolerate poor soil and alkaline soils. They are heat-tolerant, as well as very cold-hardy!

Flowering on new wood, Snowberry should be pruned in the early spring. If Snowberry gets too leggy, they can be cut back to the ground and it will come back bushier and with more berries the next year. To prevent this, simply renewal prune each spring. You can prune these shrubs each year for size control in the early spring and remove suckers as needed, transplanting them to other areas of your landscape.

Nature Hills offers several Snowberry or Coralberry varieties for you to choose from. Click the photos to learn more, or call our plant experts at (402) 934-8116.

Add Snowberry bushes to your home garden and enjoy all they have to offer.