THE season of mellow fruitfulness is upon us. Yet if you look beyond the traditional harvests of apples, pears, plums and late raspberries, and the changing leaf colours, you can add a whole new palette to the garden with a selection of autumn and winter berries that will bring different layers of colour and texture.
From the visual treats of brilliant, richly coloured berries best left for the birds, to those that have the added bonus of being edible for humans, there’s a wonderful array of shrubs and smaller trees of varying sizes that produce colourful autumn fruits.
Final flourish
Some shrubs really come into their own when they produce fruiting berries, having been relatively shy and retiring for most of the year. Skimmia is a reliable evergreen, but far more interesting when it bears fruit, while callicarpa is most notable for its unusual autumn berries in purple and white than at any other time of
