picking a Serviceberry
13 years ago
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Comments (18)
- 13 years ago
- 13 years ago
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Regent serviceberry in Maryland
Comments (6)Shrub Serviceberries don't form thick shrubs. They look best in a shrub grouping or naturized setting in my opinion. The tree forms are much better for a focal point, they can be lovely small trees. aka peggy- I had about 20 Blueberry shrubs planted near the Regent Serviceberries and on Friday I planted 12 more nice large bare root blueberry shrubs that just arrived. The Serviceberries fruit before the blueberries so the birds are already very much aware of the upcoming berry feast and start with the serviceberries. As soon as the blueberries start to ripen they scarf those up too. As much as birds seem to love the serviceberries, they like the blueberries at least as much and I think they like them more. At fruiting time that part of my yard has constant bird attention. At least half of the 20 Blueberry shrubs I had were too young to have fruit last year so its not as if I had as many berries as you might think. I figgure when all these finially start producing berries I might get enough blueberries to finially get enough to pick to bring inside....See Moreserviceberry/juneberry
Comments (6)Both: Saw your post and thought that I would respond. If you link to the site below, you'll find general and specific information on the "Downey Serviceberry" and once you arrive at the time and scroll down a bit, you'll find a link to its various "problems." I will be planting one of these shrubs/trees in our back yard this fall - haven't had the time to finally "site" it as yet, but will do shortly. It has been spending it's first summer in a large pot. Hopefully, I'll be able to shape or trim it into a small single trunk tree. In addition to this superb web site at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, you might explore the Morton Arboretum - Lisle, IL web site, who's "address" is just given below. http://www.mortonarb.org/ If you scroll down a bit, you'll see a link to their "Tree and Shrub Selecton Guide" which contains some useful information on a few Amelanchier varieties - but not on the Amelanchier arborea - as well as extensive information within their "Plant Health Care" report. Also buried within their "Tree and Shrub Selection Guide" is a link to the "Sterling Morton Library" which is beautiful and has an extensive collection of books on horticulture,etc. Buried within this library site, is a link to email questions to the reference librarians who work there. If you haven't visited either place, I encourage you to do so, but plan for a day and a half visit at minimum to more fully enjoy the garden or arboretum. I much prefer the resources at the Missouri Botanical Garden - mostly because of their "search" engine, better arrangement of the web page, the information, clearer photographs, the links provided, etc., but the Morton Arboretum is also a very excellent resource as well. Hope this additional information and resources is most helpful. Bill Here is a link that might be useful: Amelanchier arborea - Plant of Merit...See MoreIs this a serviceberry?
Comments (6)Tsugajunkie-Thanks for the confirmation that it is a serviceberry. I don't know if it's the saskatoon one but heck, "seviceberry" is good enough for me. Thanks! Mosswitch- I had heard so much about the beauty of serviceberries but I guess what I have in my woods is quantity, not quality. The flower display was pitiful. My photo shows the biggest cluster of flowers I could find. :-/ Maybe I'll get a dozen berries....and probably on a dozen trees! :-/ Oh well. I'm just happy to finally know what all those little trees are and maybe some year in the future they might surprise me with a big flower display. Thanks for running outdoors and getting that comparison for me. It's very much appreciated. Now I can move on to identifying other mysteries in the woods. :-)...See MoreServiceberry (Amelanchier alnif): texture of fruits mealy...?
Comments (14)Here some input from Steve in WA I think Amelanchier fruit quality must vary a lot with soil and climate changes. Some of the same cultivars they are talking about here I find quite delicous when eaten fresh off the bush, including both Smokey and Regent, although I never thought of Regent as particularly large, nor Smokey, they were adequate in size. My descriptions of their flavor and quality would be quite different. Cooked however, I have never found Amelanchier to be that great. If she was talking about it cooked, I would agree with the bland assessment. Even mixed with acidic fruit or using the more acidic Northline, which I recently cooked a bunch of to see if the higher acid made much of a difference, result was...slightly better perhaps but still bland. Mixed with other fruits like raspberry or cherries... assessment is a bit better but the other fruit would taste better on its own. The only mealy textures I encounter are in buggy fruit, seedy and dryish failing fruit perhaps, under-ripe berries, or some unselected poor eating types around in the wild...stuff that is not at all like Smokey. I would not rate Smokey as good or as big as Martin and Northline, but it is a quite acceptible good eating cultivar. Mine is doing particularly well this year and loaded....See More- 13 years ago
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