Totally normal. Many berry producing shrubs (or fruit producing - same difference) produce their fruit (seed carriers) at the end of the growing season.......that would be now. They were probably present even a bit earlier but more likely a greenish color you may not have noticed.

Ok then. Thank you very much gardengal48 for the helpful reply. Now that we've had this discussion it makes sense too that the scraggly ol' ash trees in my backyard have the branches hanging heavy right now with bunches of their red berries (seed carriers) too. Which I had also been wondering about.

might be a reaction to a harsh winter last year ... if you experienced such ...

ken

More likely a sign of a long, warm summer :-))

If you are interested the trees sound like mountain ash (Sorbus) rather than ash (Fraxinus). Partial discoloration of broad-leaf evergreen shrub foliage in fall can either be normal winter color coming on unevenly (with kinds that go purple or bronze each winter) or sign of a root or branch rot problem (most obvious when it is a kind that does not normally become non-green during winter). This can be all the more apparent when one or more discrete parts of the shrub change color, while the rest stays looking the same. Particularly if these parts then go on to die later!

Barberries are very tough but even these can have problems if it the root zone gets too wet at some point. If you just watch how yours do for awhile you can probably soon decide if it is just harmless winter color or not.

Okay bboy thanks for that helpful info. Yeah if the picture that hopefully is attached to this post is showing, you can see the bright redness of the leaves on just this one or two branches of the particular barberry bush with the berries, whereas the remainder of the leaves are the more typical purple color I usually see on the several of the same kind of barberry bushes I have. So as you mentioned then, likely this is indeed a sign of a root or branch problem, because the whole bush isn't changing to the red color evenly, just that one or two branches. I'll keep an eye on it but yeah probably not just "harmless" winter color happening here. Looking closely at the fifteen or so other identical species barberry shrubs I have, I notice absolutely no berries on any of those right now, nor any of the brighter red looking leaves/branches as on the shrub in question.

In regard to the ash trees, I don't know what type they are but I will look into that further and try to find out. thanks!

Looks like a purple Japanese barberry cultivar, all the leaves on this should turn red and drop each fall. The non-purple leaves that predate the main fall show could be due to a genetic mutation or other comparatively unimportant occurrence, I see variations in color like this on these shrubs down here also. If the shrub remains mostly purple in subsequent summers there is probably nothing to worry about. Otherwise the pink-leaved twigs could be snipped out, if they appear again next summer and you don't want them.

Great to hear. Thanks for following up bboy. Maybe/probably nothing to worry about then. I wonder why it seems to be just this one bush only, out of all the others, at this time that has the berries on it?

Fruiting in plantings of one kind of shrub often varies somewhat. Otherwise maybe they are not all exactly the same kind, or have experienced exactly the same circumstances.

Yep well then that most likely explains it too. Because this one shrub is off by itself in a different location on the property than the others. thanks again