Evergreen shrubPrivacy screenHedgeDrought tolerantPollinatorsNative

Coffeeberry

Frangula californica

A tough, long-lived California native evergreen whose berries ripen from green to red to black and feed wildlife. It's drought tolerant once established, grows in sun or light shade, and helps hold slopes. It does best in sandy, well-drained soil, and deer mostly leave it alone.

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Coffeeberry: flowers — Photo: Evangele19, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Mature size: 8 × 8 ft; 2.4 × 2.4 m, tall × wide
Hardiness: Zones 7a–10b; USDA
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Dry
Blooms: Apr–May

Coffeeberry at its mature size

A mature Coffeeberry grows 6 to 18 feet tall and 6 to 12 feet wide, taller than most people.

Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.

Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: San Marcos Growers, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Through the year

What Coffeeberry looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.

In leaf · Nov–Jul

Matte dark green oval leaves, no berries.

Fruit · Aug–Oct

Berries ripening from red to black among the leaves.

Photos

Coffeeberry: flowers — Flowers · Evangele19, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Coffeeberry: detail — Detail · Brofri, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Coffeeberry: detail — Detail · ALAN SCHMIERER, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Coffeeberry: leaves — Leaves · Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Growing Coffeeberry

Grows well in: California.
Growth rate: Medium
Good for: Privacy screen, hedge, drought tolerant, and pollinators
Leaves: Evergreen
Native to: California, Southwest Oregon, Arizona, and Baja California

Spacing for a hedge

VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Coffeeberry, that’s about 8 ft apart, center to center.

Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.