Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Chokeberry shrubs, 2 by Rickwebb

Rickwebb wrote:
I love chokeberry shrubs because they are clean and neat and have handsome foliage, buds, fall color, and flowers. I have several Red Chokeberry in the backyard with pretty red fruit that is very bitter to eat. I have one Tall Black Chokeberry about 10 ft high that has edible black fruit, though slightly tart. I visited my Chicago homeland in mid-August and found some regular Black Chokeberry about 4 ft high and bushy in a strip planting, probably 'Autumn Magic'. I was very excited to find some Purple Chokeberry, Aronia prunifolia, at Morton Arboretum that is hard to find. The first three photos show the Purple and the last two the regular Black Chokeberries. These are native to the mid-Atlantic. Some cultivars as 'Viking' are grown for the fruit for juice and jams, and companies are looking for chokeberry growers. The birds like the Black and Purple fruit too.