Roundleaf Serviceberry

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It is usually a shrub of 3 to 10 feet with straggling or arching stems, and now and then a small tree to about 23 feet. The twigs are reddish.

Drooping clusters of usually 7 to 10 white flowers with long, narrow petals open as the leaves unfold, from late March in the south to June in the north. The young leaves are bronzy red, and they open into nearly round, coarsely toothed blades. The fruit is under half an inch across, dark purple to nearly black, juicy and sweet, and it ripens from late May in the south to August or September in the north.

It grows on rocky slopes, cliffs, ledges, river shores and sandy woods, from Maine to Minnesota and south in the mountains to Georgia. Georgia's few colonies, on high rock outcrops, are the southernmost.

How to grow Roundleaf Serviceberry

Roundleaf serviceberry wants full sun or light shade and a well-drained soil that is acid to near neutral. Rocky, sandy or thin ground suits it. It grows best in the open or at a woodland edge, and it takes dry spells once rooted. Set plants 8 feet apart, and keep each one 4 feet from a wall. Keep it 15 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Clean the seed from the fruit at once, before it ferments. Sow it outdoors in fall a quarter inch deep. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for 90 to 120 days first. Many seeds wait until the second spring to come up.

Water weekly through the first summer. Deer and rabbits browse the twigs, so guard young plants with wire for the first two or three winters. It sometimes spreads by underground stems into a small thicket, so cut back stray suckers if you want a single clump.

Some plants set seed with their own pollen and others only with pollen from another plant, so plant two or more from different seed for a crop. Bees, flies and other insects carry the pollen, as in other serviceberries. Birds and mammals take the fruit as soon as it ripens, so pick it promptly. Fire blight, a disease of apples and pears, can spread to it.