Symphoricarpos Species, Common Snowberry, Ice Apple, White Snowberry

In landscaping it is an old-fashioned plant, a native plant, that was planted commonly at the foundations of houses in the late 1800's, j...Read Moreust like the Vanhoutte Spirea, which is similar, but it predates the latter East Asian plant. It does have pretty bluish-green foliage and big white berries and interesting little flowers. Sometimes there is a brown spot disease on the berries, usually when they are over-ripe. Birds are supposed to like the fruit. It is densely twiggy like spireas, but not in a bad way. Some big nurseries or mail order nurseries in the Midwest sell some or native plant nurseries sell a few. It is most often found at the foundations of old houses in old neighborhoods still. I has a large native range from Maine through southern Ontario into much of western Canada, the northwestern US, the upper Midwest and Virginia back to Maine.

This plant is naturalized in Ireland, obscurely named Póirín sneachta (Snow-pebble, Snow-potato?) when i was young (in Dublin) it was a...Read Morelways known as Frog Spit (Seile Loscann), when you pinch the berry between the finger and thumb it swells like a frogs neck before opening and spitting! Lots of fun to kids, only recently i found its more common name, but still call it Frog spit, there is a method in pinching the berry

A hardy, Northwest native, the large white berries really stand out on the bare branches in the winter garden.

Dainty pink flowers appear in July, which accent the blue-green foliage and produce large white berries in autumn. Excellent food for bi...Read Morerds. Good for holding soil on steep banks, as it will spread 3'-6' and grow 5' to 6' tall. Prefers light sun and moist conditions. Zones 3-7