# Downy Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea)

> First to bloom in the woods, first fruit of summer, and orange-red fall color. A four-season small tree.

Also called shadbush, juneberry, shadblow. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/downy-serviceberry/

![Downy serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) branch of oval leaves in summer light](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/downy-serviceberry-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Dcrjsr, CC BY 3.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amelanchier_arborea_leaves.JPG)*

## Facts

- Type: Small tree
- Mature height: 15 to 25 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 9
- Grows wild in: The forest understory, dry uplands, old fields and edges
- Native range: 35 states and the District of Columbia, north to Minnesota, south to Florida and west to Nebraska (Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia)
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: March to April
- Fruit: Berries, June
- First crop: 2 to 3 years after planting
- Mature spread: 15 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Edible, Wildlife value, Fall color, Winter interest, Street tree, Erosion control
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship bare-root or in a pot, usually 12 to 18 inches tall, in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Bird & Berry Hedgerow.

## Notes

Serviceberry ripens sweet, blueberry-like fruit that robins and cedar waxwings will beat you to. It rarely exceeds 25 feet, making it a fine substitute for Bradford pear or crabapple. Gray bark is its winter feature, and it fits a narrow planting strip along a street. Ideal under a power line or beside a front walk, where a bigger tree would not fit.

## Size, growth and what to expect

The name shadbush comes from downy serviceberry's habit of flowering as the shad run upriver to spawn in early spring. Our growth estimator models it at roughly a foot and a half a year, a medium pace. Other ratings run from moderate to slow, so do not count on more. It settles at 15 to 25 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide, though wild trees of 30 feet are on record. A sapling bears its first fruit 2 to 3 years after planting.

The white flowers open in March and April, before or with the leaves, and the fruit ripens in June. Each berry is about a third of an inch across, turns from green through red to blue-black, and tastes like a highbush blueberry, only a little sweeter. At least 40 kinds of birds and several dozen mammals eat it.

It grows wild from Newfoundland and New Brunswick south to the Florida panhandle and west to Minnesota, Nebraska and Texas, from swampy lowlands to dry sandy bluffs.

## How to grow Downy Serviceberry

Downy serviceberry suits full sun or part shade and average soil, clay included, as long as water does not stand. With a light, upright crown it fits a front yard, a patio corner or a woodland edge, and 12 feet from the house is enough. Set trees 10 feet apart.

Plant in the dormant season. Saplings ship bare-root or in pots. Dig a hole twice the root width and no deeper, hold the root flare at grade, refill with the soil you dug, and lay a mulch ring that stops short of the bark. Stake only on a windy site, and take the ties off after a year. Seed needs three to four months of cold, damp storage. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall a quarter inch deep, or chill it in the refrigerator and sow in spring. Many seeds wait until the second spring to come up.

Water weekly through the first summer when rain is short. Rabbits and voles gnaw the smooth bark in winter, so screen the base until the bark thickens, and tube against deer, which browse serviceberry readily. Remove suckers and crossing branches after bloom if you want a single trunk.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female trees to pair. Bees carry the pollen, and a single downy serviceberry sets fruit without a second tree. Fruit ripens in June and birds clear it in days unless you net a branch. In humid springs expect rust spots on leaves and fruit where eastern redcedar grows nearby, and the odd shoot killed by fireblight. Neither threatens the tree.

## Sources

- [USDA Fire Effects Information System: Amelanchier arborea](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/amearb/all.html)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Amelanchier arborea](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/amelanchier-arborea/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: downy serviceberry](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/downy-serviceberry/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Amelanchier arborea](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=AMAR3)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: downy serviceberry, Amelanchier arborea](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_amar3.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Amelanchier arborea](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/AMAR3)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Amelanchier chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Amelanchier.pdf)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Amelanchier arborea](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/amelanchier/arborea/)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: downy serviceberry, Amelanchier arborea](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=9)
- [Minnesota Wildflowers: Amelanchier arborea, downy serviceberry](https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/downy-serviceberry)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 9: Amelanchier arborea](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242416045)
- [Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Forestry: Downy Serviceberry](https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/downy_serviceberry.html)
- [Penn State Extension: Serviceberry in the Garden and in the Kitchen, Susan Marquesen](https://extension.psu.edu/serviceberry-in-the-garden-and-in-the-kitchen)
- [University of Maryland Extension: Less Common Fruits for a Home Garden, serviceberry](https://extension.umd.edu/resource/less-common-fruits-home-garden)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Small native trees and large shrubs for a small yard, and how to place them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-native-trees-for-small-yards/index.html.md)
- [Invasive or native? Telling tree of heaven, white mulberry, Norway maple, mimosa and Callery pear from the natives they resemble](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-trees-and-the-natives-they-resemble/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other Amelanchier we grow: [Allegheny Serviceberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/allegheny-serviceberry/index.html.md), [Bartram's Serviceberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bartram-serviceberry/index.html.md), [Nantucket Serviceberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/nantucket-serviceberry/index.html.md), [Roundleaf Serviceberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/roundleaf-serviceberry/index.html.md), [Shadblow Serviceberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/shadblow-serviceberry/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Downy Serviceberry, add ?species=downy-serviceberry with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=downy-serviceberry&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Downy Serviceberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=downy-serviceberry): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Downy Serviceberry as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=downy-serviceberry (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Downy Serviceberry is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=downy-serviceberry (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Downy Serviceberry needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 1 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=downy-serviceberry:1
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Downy Serviceberry where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=downy-serviceberry&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Downy Serviceberry goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=downy-serviceberry&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Downy Serviceberry flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=downy-serviceberry