Adding color to the winter landscape doesn't have to be restricted to the planting of cool-season annual flowers. Consider shrubs with colorful winter berries. Here are a few of the best for Southern Arizona:
Firethorn (Pyracantha species) encompasses a large group of shrubs with four species and 20 separate cultivars. All are evergreen and have large, showy clusters of berries that are at their peak during the winter months. They're a great winter food source for birds and other wildlife.
Depending on the variety, pyracantha berries come in red, orange, red-orange and yellow. Buy pyracantha in the fall and winter months to choose plants with the berry color you like best. The spring flowers that form these showy berry clusters come only in white, and although they add to the plant's overall appeal, they are not a factor selecting a variety.
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The leaves of pyracantha are shiny, dark green and dense. The overall shape of pyracantha shrubs is open and somewhat sprawling. Although they can be trained as a free-standing shrub, pyracantha are best grown against a fence, wall, trellis or the side of the house. Thorny stems make them a good choice for barrier plantings. The overall size varies greatly depending on the cultivar. Most grow 6 to 10 feet tall and wide. Some are low-growing or mounding varieties that grow no taller than 3 feet tall and up to 6 feet wide. These include "Lowboy," "Red Elf" and "Ruby Mound."
Heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) is a lacy, upright shrub with stems reminiscent of bamboo. It's an attractive foliage plant but really comes into its own in the fall and winter, when stems are topped with clusters of bright red berries. Leaves turn a mixture of fiery orange and red. Heavenly bamboo typically grows to a height of 4 to 6 feet and a spread of 3 feet. It is adapted to full sun or part shade and is drought tolerant. Locate plants where they are protected from strong winds.
Sky flower (Duranta erecta) is an evergreen shrub with bright golden berries that appear in late summer and last through much of the winter. Sky flower gets its name from the showy spikes of small, medium-blue flowers topping long, upright stems. Small crape-myrtle-like blossoms appear in late spring and remain until early fall, followed by golden berries. Plants grow up to 8 feet tall and spread up to 5 feet. Their open form makes them easy to prune and maintain at a smaller size. Sky flower prefers full sun to light shade and soil enriched with organic amendments. It is not drought tolerant — frequent watering is required during hot weather. In colder locations, sky flower may suffer some stem die-back, but it will recover rapidly in the spring. Use it to provide a screen or as a background plant in shrub borders.