Friday, November 27, 2009

Glow on, Beautyberry, glow on.

Beautyberries are a trip
It was a cold grey day, sometime in November, maybe 8 years ago. I pulled into the parking lot of the nursery—I was doing some holiday shopping. My car is grey, the sky was grey, I wouldn't have been surprised if what I was wearing was grey. And as I pulled into the spot, I saw the weirdest plant ever. For a second I thought someone had pulled a fast one and had either wired these electric purple berries on this deciduous shrub, or had taken a can of spray paint to them. They were bright purple and in this land-to-sky Portland grey, I fell in love. Beautyberry, or, Callicarpa bodinieri, if you like.

Recently I came across a beautyberry in full beauty, and I had my camera with me. It was a whole row of them, and the color was triple-fold in mass like this.

Beautyberry is truly beautiful

I finally made a home for one in our garden this last year, planted just outside my office window so that I can keep my eye on it during the grey times. I just checked in on it and yes, it has a few beautyberries, shining that crazy neon purple. Crazy beautyberry.

6 comments:

Richard said...

Holy mackerel -- those are outRAGEous.

I take it (from the fact that they're called "beautyberries" and not "yummyberries") they're not edible?

What a shame, But still - wow.

katherynei said...

I walked by one the other day just a couple blocks from my house and was dazzled by it. Such a vibrant color to contrast a drizzly day.

Flower gyrl said...

This is one of my favorite plants - mainly because I'm a total fan of anything purple in or out of the garden.

Ewa said...

They look amazing en masse. I saw live just one planted - weak effect.
..
This one seems to be WOW :)
..
Greetings,
Ewa

Miranda said...

Beautiful! Inspiring!

Eugenia said...

Gorgeous! I've never seen these before. Will keep my eyes open.