Aronia, Red Chokeberry 'Brilliantissima'

As noted, a graceful, airy, natural-looking plant. I’ve never noted an unpleasant fragrance; it does sucker a bit, like clethra, so may...Read More need to be thinned periodically.
Lovely fall leaf color. The berries are showy for a couple of weeks- unfortunately, they shrivel and turn brown at the first frost, so don’t expect a prolonged display like you’d get from an ilex, or you’ll be disappointed by its more subtle charms.

This shrub's natural habit is loose, open, and graceful. The white May flowers are showy, though malodorous (like Callery pears). The red...Read More fall fruits are also attractive, and fall color is a good red.

This shrub has been widely promoted as a native alternative to the ecologically invasive burning bush (Euonymous alatus). It does not naturally take on the dense twiggy habit of a burning bush. As the pics show, people wanting it as a burning bush substitute would call it "leggy". It also spreads by suckering, sometimes aggressively, and may not be appropriate for all applications.

It has its own charms, different from burning bush's.

The pic of the Missouri Botanic Garden's hedge surprised me---I've never seen this species grow so densely. I've never thought of it as suitable for shearing, but it looks as if I may be wrong.

I have not seen any Red Chokeberry that are not this cultivar, except for some wild young plants growing in Volo Bog in the wet, very aci...Read Moredic, peat soil in northeast Illinois near Fox Lake. It has slightly larger fruit and abundant fruit more than the mother species.

It is a very handsome plant that is informal in habit. It has handsome foliage and big red buds, great orange to red fall color, handsome erect stems with smooth gray bark, sort of like its close relative of Serviceberry. It suckers some in well-drained soils and a lot in wet soils. It is easy to prune and does not need much of that being a neat, clean plant. It would be nice to have more cultivars of this, as just having almost always one limits the genetic diversity, or get the straight species. The fruit is very tart. The birds normally don't eat the fruit until later in winter or even not at all some years. In early March of 2019 I did see a small flock of Robins eating the browned, dry fruit of some shrubs in Wayne, PA. It is a wonderfully leggy shrub; one does not need shrubs to always be bushy to the ground. It has a nice see-through quality. Coriaceous above needs a greater revelation of naturalistic and native plants that does not always match with the standard evaluation of ornamentals.

The older this plant gets the more we love it. Brilliant red in the fall. Light feathery with an intoxicating fragrance when it flowers...Read More. Dark green foliage otherwise. The white flowers in May are followed by glossy, bright-red berries that last all winter. In spring Robins love eating the berries.