• slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide

Ornamental and Edible Fruits

You don’t need to sacrifice beauty to grow a few edibles in your landscape. Many ornamental plants grown for their beauty also produce edible fruit.

Juneberries are one of my favorites.  Beautiful spring flowers, good fall color, smooth gray bark and tasty fruit you and the birds will enjoy.  They remind me of nutty blueberries and are great eaten fresh or baked into a pie or muffins.

Cornelian cherry dogwood produces showy yellow flowers in early spring followed by bright red fruit in summer.  You will need to add a bit of sugar, well for me a lot, but these are great in jams, jelly and wine.

The ornamental elderberries are quite popular.  Harvest a few of their berries to make some elderberry jam, jelly and of course wine for those more ambitious gardeners.

Go vertical with hardy kiwis.  Arctic beauty has green with cream and pink blotches and the female plants produce grape-size tasty kiwis.  Most kiwis need at least one male for every 5 female plants to produce the tasty fruit.

A bit more information:  Or try using edible plants in place of ornamentals in your landscape. Raspberries, currants and gooseberries can be used for hedges.  Grapes make a nice covering for arbors and pergolas.  And, of course, apples, peaches, plums and other fruit trees can be used as ornamental landscape trees, while providing fruit for you and your family to enjoy.

Upcoming Live Events
& Webinars


Feb. 14-16, 2025
NARI Milwaukee Spring Home Improvement Show
West Allis, WI

Feb. 19, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Strategies for Managing Invasive Plants

Register here

Feb. 26, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Create a Beautiful Shade Garden

Register here

Feb. 27, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
How to Select Rain Garden Plants

Register here

March 12, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Grow Pollinator-friendly Spring and Summer Flowering Bulbs

Register here

March 19, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Be a Waterwise Gardener
Register here


March 22, 23, 29, 30, 2025
REALTORS Home & Garden Show
West Allis, WI

March 26, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Succession Planting & Crop Rotation

Register here

March 27, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Rain Garden Q & A

Register here

April 2, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Container Gardens for Sun & Shade
Register here


April 10, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Reinvigorate Your Rain Garden
Register here


May 7, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Vertical Gardening
Register here


May 15, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
7 Steps to Managing Water on Your Property

Register here

June 4, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Attracting Hummingbirds

Register here

WATCH ON-DEMAND WEBINARS

Learn More

Book an Appearance

Learn More

Enter to Win 3 Collections of Longfield Gardens
Dahlia Bulbs

ENTER NOW