Garden Highlights

Don't miss our Garden Highlights, updated every Thursday featuring plants for their outstanding ornamental characteristics. Discover everything from flowers to fruit, buds, bark and more. You can search for specific plants using the Plant Finder

Featured: Nov 13-19

Common Name: Winterberry
Scientific Name: Ilex verticillata

Ilex verticillata, commonly known as winterberry, is a deciduous shrub native to Minnesota. Though sharing a genus with common holly, winterberry begins to drop its leaves after the first frost, whereas common holly keeps its foliage year-round. Often grown for its notable red and orange late-season fruit, winterberry stands out in the late fall and winter landscape. As a native plant, winterberry is an important resource for local wildlife, especially birds that depend on the fruit for sustenance throughout the winter.

Winterberry is considered dioecious, meaning there are separate flower-bearing male and female plants. To produce the vibrant drupes — or fruit — winterberry is known for, there must be a non-fruiting male plant nearby during the pollination season in the spring.

Visit our Winterberry Collection off of Three-Mile Drive near the Chinese Garden to observe a diverse display of cultivars including ‘Winter Gold’, ‘Afterglow’ and ‘Harvest Red’. Discover all of the locations of winterberry across the Arboretum grounds using the Plant Finder!

Garden Highlights

Featured: Nov 13-19

Purple Moor-grass

Weeping European Larch

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American Arborvitae

American Bladdernut

Crabapple

Common Witch-hazel

Panicle Hydrangea

Larkspur

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