Chokecherry 'Canada Red'

If mine is this cultivar (I was told is was), then it comes true from seed. I have lots of seed that comes up - all red-leafed and very ...Read Moresimilar to the parent. This is not usual for plants in this genus, but it is for this plant.

This plant has seemed tough-as-nails in our dry windy climate. It survived years of no watering when we bought the house. With a little a...Read Moredded irrigation it has grown like crazy. Unfortunately it does sucker fairly aggressively. But it sure is nice to have a tough plant.

One interesting thing to note: It tends to leaf out fairly early here compared with the native plants, so it is sculpted by our high spring winds here in Flagstaff, AZ. Gives it a unique character for sure. I highly recommend a good mulch around the plant to conserve moisture

My neighbors on both sides have purple-leaved chokecherries, though one of them cut it down and is trying to replace it with a sour cherr...Read Morey, somewhat unsuccessfully, since suckers keep coming up. It has beautiful white flowers every early May, with a sickly sweet scent (though not completely unpleasant). Then there are fruits, which the birds eat and then strew the seeds all around, so that there are little cherry trees in areas that aren't too dried out by the sun. As long as I don't let them get too large to pull up, they're fine. So, the plant is positive for flowers and fruit, negative for suckering and self-seeding.

It should be mentioned that it has a very strong suckering habit. The natural tendency of chokecherry is to be a bush-form thicket, not ...Read Morea single-stem tree. They are very commonly grown here.