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This time each year I get a little sentimental about the Mountain Ash we have growing in our yard.  Not only is it a beautiful native ornamental tree here in Minnesota, but this time of year they’re loaded with clusters of bright orange-red fruit.  As a little girl on the north shore, the showy fruit was a telltale sign that school would be starting up again and the freedom of summer was coming to a close.  Here in the Northfield area they ripen a little later, and over the last 30 years I’ve noticed that the showy fruit draws me not to thoughts of school, but rather the massive migration that’s underway.

 It’s usually a beautiful late summer day like today with the windows open that I hear them.  I always hear them before I see them.  The Cedar Waxwings are passing through on their way south.  The bandits are back to rob me of my beautiful orange-red berries.  These inconspicuous  songbirds with black masks on their faces will fill their bellies until the berries are gone, and then disappear.  There’s no long drawn out Minnesota goodbyes for them.  They visit my yard for one reason and I’m happy to support them on their journey south. 

This sort of “passive bird feeding” that I practice means I’m not filling bird feeders or hauling bags of seed.  I’m providing a food source that they recognize and seek out on their own, and that’s what inspired this week’s Plant-By-Letter shrub combination.  The Bunches of Berries shrub combination will produce a feast of berries in blues, reds, and pinks, with the option to incorporate a hardy, locally introduced evergreen, North Pole Arborvitae.  North Pole’s dense branching habit and soft lacy foliage creates the ideal evergreen shelter for birds both passing through and nesting.  All of these plants prefer full sun or partial shade and are tolerant of a wide range of soil types. 

Here are lists of some of the birds you might attract to your landscape by incorporating these beautiful berry bushes into your yard! 

Design Formula A

Design Formula B