A HEDGE of Sacred Bamboo (Nandina domestica) is currently a brilliant splash of colour near the entrance to our wintry garden.
Berries may not have the mass impact of flowers - anyway, by now many have vanished down the throats of ever-hungry birds - but they can still create an eye-catching display and on the shortest day, any colour is welcome.
Birds aren't interested in the berries of Sacred Bamboo (they seem to know that all its parts are poisonous), one of the reasons the plant is so useful in winter.
It is not a true bamboo but a woody shrub, about two metres tall, with pinnate leaves and sprays of white summer flowers.
Related reading:
These are followed in autumn by bright scarlet berries that often last until spring.
The best berrying form is 'Richmond', named after the Kiwi town where it first appeared, but alas it's rarely available in Australia.
However, plantsman and gardener Stephen Ryan, of Dicksonia Rare Plants in Mount Macedon (www.stephenryan.com.au), tells me in his experience nandinas produce a good crop of berries if given no special treatment other than full sun: they won't do much in shade, and this is certainly true in my garden.
Birds seem uninterested in the bright red berries of English holly (Ilex aquifolium) which always surprises me, as in my memories of my northern hemisphere childhood holly berries had usually gone by Christmas when we most wanted them.
Female, berry bearing hollies are supposed to require a male pollinator but my tree here produces lovely crops with no assistance.
I also have a Chinese horned holly, I. cornuta, smaller and slower growing than its English cousin, maybe this is male and is doing the trick, though I have never seen flowers on it.
Another berrying shrub ignored by birds is the Snow Berry, (Symphoricarpus albus) from North America.
The somewhat awkward botanical name comes from symphoreo, together, and karpus, fruit, meaning to bear together, a reference to the fruit that hang in heavy clusters. I've grown this deciduous shrub for many years and find it hardy, like all members of the honeysuckle family.
It grows to about waist height, suckers mildly, and has unobtrusive pink spring flowers followed in late summer by plump white berries that show up beautifully when the leaves fall. It's easy to propagate from 15 centimetre cuttings taken now.
I love purple berried plants but it's far too cold here for one of the best, the evergreen, rainforest Lilly Pilly (Acmena smithii). So I'm planning to try a deciduous Beauty Berry (Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii), a gorgeous garden shrub from China.
The hardy Beauty Berry reaches two mitres and carries electrifying, metallic-looking violet berries lasting for many weeks on the bare winter branches.
It's happy in sun or part-shade and likes lots of humus but its chief requirement is alkaline soil, so I'll need to stock up on lime.
Catch up on YouTube with The Horti-culturalists, Stephen Ryan and Matthew Lucas, chatting about plants, gardens and gardening.
Love agricultural news? Sign up for The Land's free daily newsletter.