Common Snowberry

Highlights

Common snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) spends spring and summer as a plain green shrub with tiny pink bells you could walk past a hundred times. Then the leaves drop, and the bare, arching twigs are left holding clusters of fat white berries, like someone strung mothballs on a bush. (Don’t eat them, though. They’re mildly toxic to people.)

It grows wild from Alaska and the Pacific Coast to New England. Birds pick at the berries into winter, hummingbirds visit the flowers, and two different sphinx moths raise their caterpillars on the leaves, depending on which side of the Rockies you live on.

Is common snowberry a good choice for my yard?

Yes, if…

• You have a hard spot to fill. It isn’t fussy about soil provided the soil is not continuously waterlogged, and it handles drought once it’s settled.
• You want winter interest. The white berries ripen in late summer and commonly remain on the plant over winter.
• You want a wildlife thicket. It spreads by underground stems and commonly forms dense thickets, the kind of cover grouse and songbirds hide in.
• Your winters are cold. It’s hardy in zones 3 to 7.

Skip it if…

• You need a shrub that stays put. It suckers, and in a tidy border you’ll be pulling runners every year.
• You want showy flowers. The bells are tiny, pinkish-white and mostly hidden in the leaves.
• Small children graze in the garden. The berries are low toxicity, but they can still cause vomiting and diarrhea.
• You expect pure white all winter. The berries eventually turn brown, and Oregon State calls them brown mush late in the season.

Why common snowberry matters

Snowberry is shelter first and food second. The Forest Service calls it important as both cover and food for birds and small mammals, and lists sharp-tailed, ruffed and blue grouse, wild turkey and western bluebird among the birds that use it. In Washington, towhees, thrushes, robins, grosbeaks and waxwings eat its berries. Snowberries host 71 native moths and butterflies in the Shropshire-Tallamy caterpillar records.

The summer flowers matter too. They’re small, but the University of Washington Bothell notes their nectar feeds Anna’s and rufous hummingbirds along with bees and other pollinators.

Two moths, two halves of the country

In the East and Midwest, the snowberry clearwing is the moth to watch for. It’s a fuzzy, day-flying hummingbird moth that looks like a bumblebee, found east of the Continental Divide, and its caterpillars eat snowberry, honeysuckle and dogbane.

In the West, the snowberry moth is a different one: the Vashti sphinx, whose caterpillars feed on snowberry and coralberry. Its range runs from British Columbia and Manitoba south to southern California, which covers most of snowberry’s western territory. If you garden in the Pacific Northwest, this is your moth.

How to grow common snowberry

When to plant

Spring or fall, from a container. Water it through the first summer. After that it mostly takes care of itself.

Sun and soil

Full sun to part shade. It will grow in more shade, but the Forest Service says it prefers more open sites, and that’s where you’ll get the most berries. Almost any soil works, clay and sand included. NC State says it resists deer, drought and occasional inundation; what it won’t do is sit in soggy ground for weeks.

Size and spacing

Most plants reach 3 to 6 feet tall and as wide, and Oregon State gives a full range of 1.5 to 7 feet. Growth is rapid. Set plants 3 to 4 feet apart for a hedge or a thicket, and give a single plant room to sucker outward.

Keeping it in bounds

Underground stems are how it spreads; the Forest Service says rhizomes are the primary method of reproduction. In a wild corner, let it go. In a bed, slice off runners with a spade each spring. If an old plant gets tired, cut it to the ground in late winter. The rhizomes sprout after fire or other disturbance kills the top, so it comes back.

Problems

Powdery mildew is the common one, along with leaf spot, rust and berry rot. Good air flow and a sunny spot help.

Its range is huge, from Alaska across the northern states to New England and south in the mountains to North Carolina. NatureServe ranks it secure across that range.

Snowberry, coralberry or western snowberry?

Three close cousins get mixed up in nurseries. Coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus) has pink-purple berries and is native to the central and southeastern U.S.; NC State notes it’s often confused with common snowberry, and it’s also heavily browsed by deer. Western snowberry (Symphoricarpos occidentalis) is a smaller shrub, to 4 ft. tall with greenish-white berries that soon turn brown or black.

If the berries are big, white and round, and the plant came from a native nursery that labeled it carefully, you have common snowberry. Check the tag for the botanical name before you buy.

Where common snowberry shines in your yard

• A wildlife thicket at the back of the lot, where it can sucker freely.
• A dry, shady slope under taller trees, where grass gave up.
• An informal hedge mixed with other native shrubs.
• A winter window view, where you can see the white berries on bare twigs.
• A woodland edge with ferns and groundcovers in front.

Where can I buy common snowberry?

Native nurseries in the West and North carry it, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Look for Symphoricarpos albus on the label, not coralberry. Oregon State lists a variegated form, ‘Variegatus’, that is slower growing, but the plain species is the better pick for birds. Start with our list of native plant nurseries or order online.

What are good pairings for common snowberry?

Snowberry’s big moment is winter, so give it neighbors that cover the rest of the year. In the Northwest, try red-flowering currant for early spring, oceanspray for summer and western sword fern in front. Across its range, Saskatoon serviceberry, red twig dogwood and golden currant like the same sun and soil.

Common snowberry won’t win a summer beauty contest. It earns its place by growing where other shrubs sulk, hiding birds in its thickets and holding up those white berries after everything else has gone bare. If you garden in the Northwest, pair it with salal and Oregon grape for a planting that stays green when snowberry doesn’t. Happy planting!

Written by

Emily Lessard

Founder & Editor, The Plant Native

Emily Lessard is the founder and editor of The Plant Native, the site that helps homeowners across North America get started with native plants. She holds a Sustainable Landscapes certificate through the Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association, is finishing a Native Perennial Garden Design Certificate at Temple University, and is the author of Plant Native: A Practical Guide to Over 100 Native Plants of North America (Quarto, March 2027). She gardens outside Philadelphia in the 8.3 Southeastern Plains ecoregion.

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Updated October 12, 2026Find more: Shrub

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