Chinese beauty fruit, Callicarpa giraldii

The Callicarpa giraldii, better known as love pearl bush, purple beauty fruit or Chinese beauty fruit originally comes from central and western China. It belongs to the mint family and there are approx. 140 different species. Here you will find out everything worth knowing and interesting about the plant as well as helpful tips for caring for it.

Beauty until winter

The Chinese beauty fruit impresses with its stunning fruiting, especially in autumn. In summer, on the other hand, the plant often receives little attention, with the exception of bees. When most other plants start preparing for the cold months, the Beauty fruit its shiny violet and purple berries, hence the name beautyfruit. The so-called love pearls form on the cymes and often stick to the branches well into winter.

Characteristics

During the summer months, the medium-tall plant with its small and inconspicuous flowers is unobtrusive. Between June and July, the love pearl bush flowers mainly in pink and white. The leaves are serrated and can grow to about ten centimeters in width and length. Many plant lovers use the growth height of two to three meters and place more love pearl bushes next to each other to get a decorative privacy screen. The beauty fruit is also a perfect starter plant, as it rarely needs pruning and is very easy to care for. However, you should be careful with the lovely berries, as they are mildly toxic in many varieties.

Care

Since the home of the ornamental plant is China, it prefers a location from sunny to semi-shady. In winter it should be protected from cold winds. The Chinese beauty fruit has fewer high demands when it comes to the quality of the soil. The only requirements are not too heavy, low in lime and no formation of waterlogging. If your soil is too heavy, mix in a little sand before planting. Please also note the following points:

• no fertilizer is required
• protect the roots with the help of bark mulch
• do not use de-icing salts near it
• if it is dry, water with lime-free water
• protect in winter with jute bags.

The plant is not completely hardy in the first few years and young plants in particular need winter protection. Due to the decorative and numerous berries, there is nothing wrong with cutting off a few branches with a sharp knife, for example to use them as vase decorations. However, a thorough rejuvenation cut should be well thought out, since the plant always bears its berries on the two-year-old wood. If you cut your ornamental shrub extensively, it will show its love pearls even more poorly in the following year. On the other hand, it is okay if you thin out your beautiful fruit a little over the course of the summer. To do this, cut the branches that only have a few flowers, because that is where they will sprout again. This leads to a visible rejuvenation of the plant. A love pearl bush that has grown too tall over the years often begins to bare at the bottom. These should then receive an extreme pruning, preferably in the spring. Simply shorten branches that have become too long and dead shoots. Although most of the berries and blossoms fail that year, the chances of a new budding being successful in the next season are very high.

Diseases

Particular pests and diseases are not common, other than the foliar damage that develops when you apply de-icing salt to the immediate area around the plant. So-called de-icing salt that has seeped into the ground can cause enormous damage to the love pearl bush for years to come. Therefore, resort to other methods to clean your shrub from snow and ice. For example, use jute or flow bags, fir twigs are also suitable if you place them at an angle on the plant and tie them down.

planting

When planting the beauty fruit, keep a distance of approx. eighty centimeters. The best time to plant is in autumn or spring, even if you plan to plant a hedge. You will get an extraordinary amount of berries and fruits if you put several plants next to each other, as they pollinate each other. The Chinese beauty fruit also looks particularly great if you plant it near a hazelnut or a hazelnut. These also form stunning fall colors.

propagation

You can propagate your beauty fruit both by cuttings and by sowing. Propagation by cuttings is particularly suitable for hobby gardeners and beginners, as it is quite simple. You simply have to cut off strong, long shoots that do not have any fruit hangings in the fall and put them in the ground. Select the shoots you want and cut them up with a sharp knife so that there is still a pair of buds at the top and bottom. If you want to stimulate the development of new roots on the cutting, then a rooting powder made from seaweed extract will help. You moisten the cuttings on the underside and dip them briefly into the powder. If you start your cuttings in a pot, then it is best to keep them in a frost-free but cool place. During this time, the soil should be kept slightly moist but in such a way that no waterlogging can form. The following spring you can put your seed pots outside. There they then form sufficiently strong roots until summer, in order to then spend them at their new location.

The ornamental plant can be propagated by sowing indoors throughout the year. The temperature should be at least twenty degrees Celsius. You will need these utensils:

• growing medium
• rubber band
• cultivation vessel
• cling film
• some sand.

To focus on the germination of the seeds in advance, soak the seeds in a bowl filled with lukewarm water for 24 hours. Mix the growing substrate with some sand to make it permeable. Then transfer to a pot with a drainage hole. A thin layer of granules or pebbles will prevent the drain hole from clogging. The seeds are then planted to a depth approximately twice their length. Finally, moisten the whole thing a little, cover it with a plastic sheet and fix it with a rubber band. Due to the high humidity, please poke some tiny air holes.

frequently asked Questions

Worth knowing about the beautiful fruit in brief

Characteristics

• The Chinese beauty fruit with the botanical Callicarpa giraldii is also called purple beauty fruit or love pearl bush.
• It belongs to the mint family (Lamiaceae) and is native to China, where it grows in the middle and west at altitudes from 200 to 3,400 meters.
• Other authors classify the genus Callicarpa in the verbena family (Verbenaceae).
• The love pearl bush is often used as an ornamental plant in gardens and parks in all temperate climate zones.
• The deciduous shrub with upright branches and quite regular and dense branching grows to about 2 meters in height and width.
• From July to August it produces small, light purple flowers that cover the entire shrub. In autumn the foliage turns light yellow to orange.
• A large number of berry-like stone fruits form on the two-year-old wood, which gave the plant its name.
• The fruits stay on the bush until Christmas.

species

About 140 species of the genus Beautyfruit are known worldwide, most of which grow in the tropical or subtropical regions of Asia and Australia, in North America and Central America. We usually cultivate Callicarpa bodinieri, the Profusion variety convinces with its strong fruit set and is the most beautiful ornament for our gardens.

site selection

Because of its beautiful fruits, the beauty fruit does well in the field of view, where it can be planted as a solitary plant or as a shrub border. Several shrubs next to each other ensure better pollination of the flowers, which then produce more fruit. Its size and width makes the beauty fruit a good privacy screen that can decoratively shield parts of the garden.

Care

• The love pearl bush likes wind-protected and sunny locations with acidic to slightly acidic soil.
• The soil should not be too heavy and should be well drained.
• The location should be protected so that the plant is not exposed to cold winds.
• The love pearl bush is dependent on constant soil moisture.
• The plant is not entirely hardy, and the shrub can suffer frost damage in particularly harsh winters.
• Very young plants need protection in winter, e.g. B. from a layer of mulch layered around the shrub.

Cut

Since the fruits of the beauty fruit grow on two-year-old wood, the beauty fruit should hardly be cut. Every pruning would also remove this year's branches, which will then not be able to bear fruit next year. You can only cut individual branches to carefully correct the overall shape, even if the branches bear berries.

Editor's tip: Beauty fruit as a room decoration

The branches with the beautiful, colorful fruits last a long time in the vase. They also look really unique, floristry discovered the decorative branches a long time ago. You too can use any corrective pruning of the shrub to put the jewelry in the vase.

Learn more about shrubs and woody plants