Shade/part shade; an unassuming semi-evergreen perennial whose pale pink flowers and translucent red berries provide maintenance-free delight throughout the warm season. Easy to grow in moist or dry soils, pigeonberry makes an informal groundcover in shady settings and grows naturally under bushier plants like Turk’s cap and American beautyberry. Don’t eat the berries; they can be slightly toxic to humans, pets, and mammals (causing digestive upset). But they make a terrific year-round food source for birds, who aid in spreading the seed!
Once established, pigeonberry can propagate fairly rapidly in preferred settings. Volunteer pop-ups are frequent, but these can be very easily pruned or mowed.
For recent plantings, watering once a week over the first summer assists in establishment; after that, pigeonberry survives and reseeds on its own and the volunteers do not require special care. Plants can be pruned as needed; in frost-free winters they may remain semi-evergreen.
An informal shade groundcover that produces flowers and red berries throughout the warm growing season.
