Downy Serviceberry

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.