There are a great many ornamental shrubs and small trees with edible fruits, leaves etc that can often be seen growing in ornamental gardens. Below is a list of just a few suggestions for you to consider growing. The main difficulty in writing this leaflet was not so much what plants to include, but what plants could be left out in order to reduce the list to a reasonable length. Other leaflets are available giving details of plants that can be grown in the ornamental, water and bog gardens, but if you have any plants in your garden that have not been included on any lists and that you think might be edible or have other useful qualities, then you could always write to us giving details of the plant including the botanical name (if you know it), the common name and a brief description (ie tree/shrub/herbaceous perennial etc, evergreen/deciduous, height etc, etc).
Top EdibleShrubs No 10 #EdibleShrubs Chutro; Berberis asiatica.
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Berberis+asiatica
Fruit - raw or dried and used like raisins. This species is said to make the best Indian raisins. Fully ripe fruits are fairly juicy with a pleasantly acid flavour, though there are rather a lot of seeds. The fruit is abundantly produced in Britain. The fruit is about 8mm long.
Medicinal Uses: Antibacterial; Cancer; Laxative; Odontalgic; Ophthalmic; Tonic.
Top Edible Trees No 11 #EdibleTrees: Filbert; Corylus maxima http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Corylus+maxima
Seed - raw or cooked. It is rich in oil. Large and well flavoured, it can be eaten raw, cooked in cakes, pies, breads etc or used to make a plant milk. The seed ripens in mid to late autumn and will probably need to be protected from squirrels. When kept in a cool place, and not shelled, the seed should store for at least 12 months. An edible oil is obtained from the seed.
Other Uses: Basketry; Charcoal; Hedge; Hedge; Oil; Oil; Wood.
The seed contains up to 65% of a non-drying oil, used in paints, cosmetics etc. The whole seed can be used to polish and oil wood. Very easy and effective. Plants can be grown as a tall hedge. They need to be left untrimmed or only lightly trimmed if seed is required. Wood - soft, easy to split, not very durable, beautifully veined. Used for inlay work, small items of furniture, hurdles, wattles, basketry, pea sticks etc. The twigs are used as dowsing rods by water diviners. The wood also yields a good quality charcoal, used by artists.