Match your Football Team Colors to your Garden Berries!

This time of year people respond to color in the garden and on the football field! Berries add a bright statement to landscapes and many ripen and color up now. Some of these berries share the same Team Colors that are displayed by some of Crabapple LandscapEXPERTS' favorite SEC athletic teams.

Berried Treasures

The most familiar berried shrub in the winter garden is Holly, with a profusion of Georgia Bulldog-Red berries set against spiny evergreen leaves. There are many different types of holly including the deciduous Winterberry Holly, American Holly, English Holly and plenty of hybrids. 

If you’re a Florida ‘Gator try the Orange Pyracantha berries. This is a low-growing evergreen groundcover or can be trained on a wall or espaliered to climb along a fence, loaded with orange berries.The beautiful woody ornamental produces an abundance of orange berries each fall and is an excellent source of landscape color fall through winter. 

Alabama Crimson Tide followers might try the Crimson-Red berries on the compact, evergreen Nandina. This is a prolific berry producer and delivers brilliant crimson foliage and generous sprays of crimson berries. They are extremely long-lasting, often continuing into the following summer. Versatile and durable, Nandina is effective massed as a border planting or as a specimen in the landscape. Birds that consume Nandina berries are known to become inebriated and subsequently fly into glass windows and doors. 

LSU Tiger fans might plant the superb shrub known as Beautyberry that sports Purple berries. Abundant clusters of the long-lasting purple berries are grouped along the branches, following small purplish-pink flowers in summer. Prune this deciduous shrub in late winter to early spring to promote branching and berry production. 

Kentucky supporters might choose the bright Blue berries of Mahonia that follow upright trusses of  fragrant yellow terminal flowers. The berries are sometimes called Oregon Grapes. Leathery, dark green leaves have spines that make a fine specimen plant or a barrier hedge. 

White Snowberries could suffice for the garden if your team has lots of “away games” since visiting teams often wear White jerseys. Hope your team has a Winning Season!  

Digging Deeper

Can athletic uniform colors determine winners?