Cherry Berries ™ Wintergreen
Gaultheria procumbens 'Cherry Berries'
Nature's wintergreen lifesavers! This new cultivar is loaded with very large, nickel-size, showy red, tasty berries. The berries can be made into tea, eaten raw, mixed into fresh fruit salad or used in a refreshing ice cream. The leaves can be used as a minty tea. Both leaves and fruit taste like wintergreen lifesavers.
Self-fertile wintergreen ripens berries in waves, starting in late summer until late winter. They are a creeping native of the eastern United States and will spread outward 12 inches or more. Plant 12 inches apart, in partial or full shade - needs to stay cool and moist; not especially well-suited to dry and warm summer climates without reliable irrigation. Needs a loose, acidic soil (ph 4.5 - 6) with high organic matter content. It grows to about 6 inches tall and makes a great edible evergreen groundcover. Cold hardy to USDA Zones 3.