I've started growing aronia, enjoyed just a few berries this year. Viking, Nero, and native aronia starts have been put into nursery rows and a few planted out. Aronia is more suited to processing with other fruit/sweetener, unless you're have a very tough/masochistic palate. I'm excited to put my eventual harvests towards mixed fruit jams, tincture/infusions, and fruit wine or (hard)cider. Try a basic wine recipe with some of those berries, in a year you'll be enjoying your own vino! I make blueberry, elderberry, highbush cranberry, they are easy and turn out great. I think the astringent qualities of aronia make it a great candidate for straight or in a blend. Adding a few pounds to a batch of cider could make up for not using 'real' cider apples(bittersharps, etc), and give the finished product some real backbone and a nice color. You must have some commercial aspirations with that planting, ClarkinKS. There is plenty of buzz about aronia these days, I'm curious about your plans. Also more about your pawpaws, are they grown in zone 5? Maybe that's another topic. I guess Viking and Nero are technically 1/2 european mountain ash hybrids, don't know about 'iroquois beauty.'

I never got around to transplanting these in the spring so now that it's fall, I'm getting a spot ready again. I'm thinking about using them as a screen though instead of planting them in the middle of a bed so I have questions. Is it a see-through shrub? Does it get bare on the bottom or keep its leaves all the way to the ground?

I have Aronia Melanocarpa (Viking). As for health benefits etc. I will leave that up to whoever (blueberries, autumn olive, raw cocao and a dozen others are always touted) as I think most berries are a good choice. They are very easy to grow, and sucker freely. The fruit is quite astringent from the tannins in the skin, my neighbor girl and I like them fresh, my wife and kids and everyone else we have tried them on are less than impressed. The best juice Ive made has been by using a steam juicer, the "cooked fruit" taste is more to my liking than when I freeze and press the berries. Jelly and Wine are both winners here as well. I have 2 bushes that are only about 5' tall and in diameter, they produce many many pounds of fruit. I also have 5 more bushes further away from the house, and the deer have decimated them. The birds dont seem too interested in the berries left on the bush until late winter when they are running out of other things, then they pick the bushes clean. my advise it to definitly buy a couple plants, and experiment with the fruit. try some before a frost, try some after a hard frost, i am sure you will not be disappointed in the long run

esh_ Me, too! I, among many others, disregard the name change, that was published and accepted? in 1991. The Basionym for Aronia arbutifolia is Mespilus arbutifolia L.(1753) and since that time it has been placed in Genera Pyrus & Sorbus, but always with the epithet; arbutifolia On the other hand, Photinia pyrifolia has the Basionym of Crataegus pyrifolia and has been placed in Genera Halmia and Aronia, but always as pyrifolia. Aronia arbutifolia is not listed as a Synonym of Photinia pyrifolia anywhere, except in the plants.USDA index (Kartesz, Duncan, et al.) If you want to use Aronia arbutifolia, that is probably the more correct species name. MHO Rb