Serviceberry
Amelanchier lamarckii
also called saskatoon, juneberry, shadbush
Spring blossom followed by dark berries in early summer — worth netting, because the birds reach them first.
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- White
- Sunlight
- Sun or light shade, with full sun giving the best crop.
- Watering
- Water through the first year; after that it copes with drought.
- Feeding
- A compost mulch in spring; it rarely needs feeding beyond that.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- April
- Pruning
- Little pruning is needed after flowering — take out dead wood and stop there.
- Mar–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–Jun Flowering
- Jun–Jun Fruit Set
- Jun–Oct Harvest
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 14 ft 9 in
- In-row spacing
- 14 ft 9 in
- Between rows
- 18 ft 1 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody and fibrous
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 20–26 ft across, about 1.5–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A shallow woody framework with the fine feeding roots in the leaf litter above it. Those feeders are mostly under the outer half of the canopy rather than against the stem, which is where water and feed should go.
It suckers from the base into a multi-stemmed thicket, which is how it grows naturally. Take the suckers off if you want a small tree, or leave them and let it be a shrub.
The habit is Serviceberry’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
Blueberries, Heather, Ferns
Shrubs, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com