Does it get red berries? Wondering if it’s chokecherry. They have lots around the hospital where I work and I always love when they’re blooming.

They smell heavenly !

Thanks! We have not seen red berries but this is the first year it flowered. We had a burning bush growing there that died so it was cut down. This then started growing and we thought it was the burning bush coming back but it never turned red and was just green. Then it grew taller than the old bush and this year had the white flowers.

I just looked up choke cherry trees and they sucker! Bummed because we have a plum tree that does that and it is a huge pain. My husband roasted our largest rose bush trying to use the flame thrower on the plum suckers so we had to cut it back to the ground this year. I will look more closely at the others in the neighborhood to see if I see evidence of suckering. For this, so far I haven't seen it, but then this is the first year it flowered so maybe it wasn't mature enough.

I've seen a lot of chokecherry trees that weren't suckering.

Thanks. I'm going to cling to that hope.

Choke cherry (Prunus virginiana) is a native shrub, and, if you have the room for them are a really cool plant that provides habitat and food for a variety of birds and wildlife. If you get some berries for yourself they are edible, but you need to add a healthy dose of sugar (they aren't called CHOKE cherries for nothing). I think there are ornamental varieties that don't sucker as badly, but the "native" version does so with reckless abandon, putting cottonwoods and aspens to shame. They are also very adept re-seeders in my experience.

There's also black cherry (P. serotina) which is very similar, native to the eastern U.S., and also used in landscaping. I don't know much about it's suckering or habits though. Nor do I know how to distinguish between the two species.

Thanks Zach. The seed was almost certainly brought in by a bird. There are 4 other trees in our neighborhood but none near our house. I took pictures of two of them yesterday and in looking at them I don't see evidence of suckering. I'll go look at them more closely today and maybe talk to the owners if they are out. So far no evidence of suckering away from the tree but there are shoots at the base that we will cut off.

Good to know there may be an ornamental version that doesn't sucker. I would really like one in the yard. We have a snowball bush that died so I even have a spot for it.