Erosion Control & Berries

I would appreciate suggestions for erosion control that also offers berry for birds.
This would be semi shade-zone 6.

You could try blueberry, huckleberry, serviceberry, yaupon holly, dahoon holly, and some smaller plum trees.

The blueberry, huckleberry, plums and serviceberry are good to eat for humans. The hollies will put on their berries in winter so you would be able to offer both spring/summer and winter food for the birds.

If you don't mind briar vines, blackberry and dewberry are easy to grow and taste good too.

The area will be in mostly shade. I think? what you listed are sun plants. I should have mentioned that in the previous post. Thanks for writing.

You mentioned semi-shade first time, mostly shade second time. I think JCalhoun has listed plants that will tolerate those conditions and will flower/fruit, albeit not as much as in full sun.

This is pretty much standard behavior for most flowering/fruiting plants that are grown ornamentally. As individual specimens, they grow well and flower/fruit a lot with more sunlight (and usually requiring more attention to watering). These species perform decently in less sunlight, but just don't flower as heavily and thus set less fruit overall. I think it is a good plan to use these kinds of plants in the situation that you are describing, as well as any you can find that will only perform well in shady spots. That will be a shorter list.

To those mentioned above, I would add:

**every Viburnum species that you can lay hands on, especially Viburnum acerifolium
**Lindera benzoin
**all the Ilex will be good choices, especially the broadleaf evergreens that can provide cover
**many of the Malus selections, Crataegus spp., and Cornus spp. are excellent fruiters
and
**Aralia spinosa is simply awesome.

Also add buckthorns Rhamnus spp., Frangula spp., and honeysuckles Lonicera spp., but make sure you get local native species (avoid invasive alien species).

Resin

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will surely research the list. I am also considering using Sambucus. I have looked at S. 'Black Lace' and S. 'Black Beauty', but I'm not sure they will hold the soil or produce lots of berries versus the more common Sambucus. I thought about the Viburnums which I truly love, but wasn't sure they would make it in the shaded area. This area will get "some" western sun as the sun sets.

Pretty much all the native viburnums are common understory plants, which we have ornamentally brought out "into the light".

Sambucus canadensis would be an excellent selection, far better for your interests than the European forms.

Maybe a silly question, but does the Viburnums have a really good root system for erosion?

Yep. And many of them "sucker" forming nice dense thickets that the birds love for shelter and hold the soil. Cranberry viburnums (V. trilobum) and Viburnum acerifolium are both excellent at this. They will give you the most bang for your bucks.

Thanks again.

VV, right on for promoting the natives!

Birder, I'm not an expert on erosion as I live on the flattest land on earth, but I can vouch for Lindera benzoin - this is a wonderful shrub. The only problem is that you must have a male and female plant for fruit as the plants are diocious (male and female reproductive structures on separate plants). I want to get another one or two, but nursery folks seem reluctant to sex these plants, so I may get 2 more of the sex I have - which I am uncertain of!

Spicebush is a wonderful native, but extremely difficult to propagate from cuttings, as well as difficult to transplant, so they are rare in the trade. You might check with Musser Trees or some other source for reforestation and native plants.

Relatively speaking, there are many more nurseries producing Lindera benzoin from seed today than 15 years ago. In HoosierGreen's neighborhood, there are two fine wholesale nurseries specializing in natives that produce very nice stock. We've installed them here in Louisville's parks.

Retail sources may be less prevalent, but I bet you can find some easy enough, especially if you are willing to use bare root plants. Lawyer Nursery in Montana might be one, and Forrest Keeling Nursery in Missouri might be another closer by.

Forrest Keeling is a great local resource in our area.
They have some sort of 'air pot' which creates great root structure in 1gallon stock.
I might have mis-represented it, but I've rented a pickup twice to drive up to Forrest Keeling to load up on bargains.
But I also have found lindera benzoin listed for mail order in several catalogs.

Edited to add that my lindera benzoin are just now starting to bloom.
Subtle yellow flowers in early spring.

This message was edited Mar 1, 2011 7:37 PM