Fruits as Ornamentals

by Marvin Pritts

Many of these bushy plants have attractive landscape qualities. Chokeberry (Aronia) is unfamiliar to many. Although native to the northeastern US, it is grown almost exclusively in northern Europe where the fruit juice is considered to have extraordinary health-enhancing properties. The name does not reflect anything about the berry itself, whose flavor is mild and pleasant. What I like most about chokeberry, however, is its unique waxy red/maroon fall foliage.

A hedge of chokeberry could be the envy of the neighborhood.