Nancy Here: Coffeeberry (Frangula) at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts
I especially love stopping by to see what is going on at our habitat garden at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Last time I checked there was a lot of action on coffeeberry. One of our favorite garden shrubs for the garden and for hedgerows, coffeeberry has great wildlife value. And April/May is the bloom time. Last time I looked the shrubs were buzzing with bumblebees and honeybees, nectaring on the tiny greenish flowers. In fall and winter the small black berries provide food for finches, mockingbirds and other songbirds. The beautiful Pale Swallowtail and Gray Hairstreak butterflies use coffeeberry as caterpillar host plants. It has beautiful dark green foliage, is fast growing (we’ve planted “Pt. St George’ which has a compact shape, to 4 ft.), is drought tolerant and grows in sun or part shade.
Nancy Bauer
President and Co-founder, the Habitat Corridor Project and Author