With a height of up to 8 feet and a spread of up to 5 feet, as well as four-season appeal, the red chokeberry shrub (Aronia arbutifolia) is an asset to just about any landscaping situation. That’s especially true for homeowners with boggy soil where little else will grow. Its silhouette is vase-shaped and can spread to fill empty areas.
The red chokeberry shrub wears a lacy look in the spring, with small, light pink or white flowers covering the entire shrub. In the summer, large quantities of edible berries begin to appear. The berries are large, glossy, and bright red and, after ripening in late summer, last through the fall and often into the winter.
Once autumn comes, it’s the leaves turn to stand out. That’s when their dark green shiny leaves -- already a standout in spring and summer -- turn a beautiful red.
The fruits of the red chokeberry shrub draw a wide variety of birds in the fall and winter. In addition, you may enjoy making old-fashioned jellies, jams, and pies from tart fruits.
The Red Chokeberry Shrub Tolerates Many Growing Conditions
The red chokeberry shrub is suited for zones 4 to 8. The shrub is prized for its ability to thrive in various growing conditions. Many choose it for moist to wet areas in full sun to partial shade. But it will also grow in drier, shadier corners of your property.
That makes the red chokeberry shrub useful for some landscaping needs. Use it as a foundation planting to screen unsightly cement sections or decking posts. Place it on the edge of your property as a decorative boundary marker that also uses those low, puddle-prone areas.
If you have a woodland area, the red chokeberry shrub makes an excellent understory planting near the edges of the forest. It’s also a lovely addition to any ponds or streams on your property, on which its ability to naturalize will soon fill in blank spaces and crowd out seeds.
Or set the red chokeberry shrub in the back of a perennial border for a jolt of color over many months, from its early white flowers to its summertime look of red berries and glossy green leaves, to its red fall foliage splendor, and finally, to its wintertime drama of red fruits hanging on bare branches, likely with a bird or two perching there.
Caring for Your Red Chokeberry Shrub
These thorny shrubs don’t need much in the way of TLC from you. But pruning them will help you manage their spread. Cut away any side shoots in the late spring after their flowers have fallen. Mulch the area to keep the area moist and to keep competing weeds down when the plant is younger.
Beyond that, you won’t have to do much for the red chokeberry shrub, which rarely suffers from insect pests or plant disease and can tolerate various soil and weather conditions.
