Amelanchier canadensis...Service Berry

[August44]

I am thinking about getting some Amelanchier canadensis (Service Berry) for Bonsai trees. I also think we have them as a native around here. Several questions before I go off on this journey:
1) Do they do well with root pruning?
2) Do they do well with truck chopping?
3) Are the branches bendable for wiring or stiff?
4) Do they grow fairly fast or are they a slow grower?
5) Is it better to look for a tree type or the bush type?

Help appreciated, Peter

 

[amatbrewer]

I have one in my yard and can answer items 2-4: Yes, Yes, & Fast.
We hack ours way back most winters and it grows like crazy the following year, it seems quite hardy at least in that respect. The branches seem to remain quite pliable at least the couple of year old growth I have does.
I am not sure if the foliage will reduce, if it doesn't it will be hard to get it proportional unless it is a rather big bonsai. And it seems to like to grow long and straight (and remains pliable), so getting motion in it is likely to be a chore (cut and grow?).
If the air layer I took last year to experiment with (because I need practice with air layering) survives I guess I will know more in a few seasons.
I have already learned a hundred ways how NOT to grow Bonsai...this might be 101.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I have 2 in Anderson flats growing up to be bonsai. I LOVE them as bonsai. Amelanchier, Service Berry, are extremely winter hardy. I just set them down on the ground for the winter. They bloom early spring, before leaves. They are never bothered by late frosts. Smooth gray bark, like a beech until they are extremely old. Respond well to pruning and wiring. Leaves reduce well. Fruit is small enough, and edible. In many ways a lot like the best traits of crab apple with much better disease resistance.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

They are slow to trunk up. If you can, find the largest diameter trunk you can. It will be rare to find a trunk much over 2 inches diameter. They are great for small bonsai. And great for clump, or Forrest plantings. I shopped the single trunk tree types, to get the larger caliper trunk.

The soloniferous, shrub types will produce a lot of suckers, that will need to be kept in check.

 

[coh]

I have 2 in Anderson flats growing up to be bonsai. I LOVE them as bonsai. Amelanchier, Service Berry, are extremely winter hardy. I just set them down on the ground for the winter. They bloom early spring, before leaves. They are never bothered by late frosts. Smooth gray bark, like a beech until they are extremely old. Respond well to pruning and wiring. Leaves reduce well. Fruit is small enough, and edible. In many ways a lot like the best traits of crab apple with much better disease resistance.

Have you ever posted these? Would like to see them. I've got a couple that I got as seedlings and threw into my growing bed a few years ago. Pretty soon I'm going to be
digging them and will have to decide if they're worth pursuing as bonsai or whether they should just be planted as yard trees (or shrubs).

 

[August44]

Thanks Leo. So you are saying buy the tree type verses the bush type? And where did you buy yours if I can ask? Thanks for input. Peter

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Be aware that they and junipers are in the life cycle of cedar hawthorne rust. All my amelanchiers came already infected. Both chlorothalonil and mancozeb can prevent infections but there apparently is no way to eliminate it from an infected tree so watch out.

 

[August44]

Cofga...and how does one know when you get them that they are infected especially if they have no foliage?

 

[WNC Bonsai]

That is one of the problems with them and all the species that are susceptible to rust and other incurable diseases. You really don’t know what you are introducing into your collection unless you buy from a nursery that guarantees they are disease free. This especially a problem with collectong wild plants. Both my collected hawthornes have rust. Fortunately my juniper has not come down with it, yet.

 

[cbroad]

how does one know when you get them that they are infected especially if they have no foliage

Not positive, but you may see cankers on the stems.

You can definitely tell they're infected when the fruit starts growing little spikes.

Note what @Cofga said, it's not cedar apple rust but cedar hawthorne rust; different but related. Probably for our purposes, the distinction doesn't matter though.

 

[cbroad]

I think for these, a dormant spray is imperative...

The fruit is delicious, and I think they taste similar to blueberries. I used to eat tons of them at my nursery until I noticed the spikey fruit

 

[August44]

Thanks for all the help and info guys! Peter

 

[WNC Bonsai]

We have 4 in our yard and they do taste delicious although you have to get them each morning before the birds do. While cankers can be a sign ofminfection, none of my trees have them yet the leaves all develop the characteristic rusty spot, and we had a number of the fruit develop the nasty looking fruiting bodies. Next year all my susceptible trees will get a healthy dose of chlorothalonil or mancozeb as a prophylactic.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Amelanchier can get one or more of the rusts, but it seems more resistant to the most common strains of rust in my Chicago - Milwaukee areas. I bought the tree form (hybrid) Amelanchier x Grandiflora, at my local landscape nursery. It was a 6 foot tall tree in a 5 gallon pot. Any of the better nurseries would have them.

 

[August44]

Thanks Leo. Was yours a single trunk tree or multi trunk? I will look for some. I found a seller today on line but they only had them in 4" pots. I guess if I was 20, that'd be ok.

 

[August44]

I am having a terrible time finding a decent sized "tree" in one of these. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Peter

 

[amatbrewer]

I am having a terrible time finding a decent sized "tree" in one of these. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Peter

I am assuming you are looking in nurseries, have you considered collecting? I don't know about OR, but there are lots of Service Berries in WA and now that I know they can make Bonsai, I plan to see what the rules are regarding collecting.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Hey Peter,
Your local landscape nursery should have single trunk or low number of trunk Amelanchier. Look in the section where they have trees over 4 feet tall. You need to buy a big one to get a head start on trunk caliper. My 6 foot Amelanchier had only about 1.5 to 2 inch diameter trunk. They are slow to develop a thick trunk. You can look in the wild. Every state in the USA, except Hawaii, has a species or two of Amelanchier native to the state. I'm sure you have one in the forest edge areas at medium elevation where you live. Where you see dogwoods and cottonwoods growing along a stream, look to where the forest is encroaching that valley with its stream. The service berry, Amelanchier will be at the forest edge, where it opens up to grassland. They like moisture but do not want to be flooded for any length of time. So they are not a floodplain species.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@coh
I did post mine before but I could not find it. My study group, ''Arbor Arts Collective'', we did a group project, I bought 12 Amelanchier x Grandiflora, we all took one, I ended up with two, the one I picked and the one nobody wanted. This was Spring 2015. Click to expand small images.

Spring 2015


In May of 2016 a few of us (4 of us) remembered to bring our Service berries to a get together to compare notes. All trees on the table are the same cultivar of Amelanchier x grandiflora. The differences are because of how they were treated. The one on the left was pretty much as it came from the nursery. Note the one pruned drastically and plopped right into a bonsai training pot. Others were put into various grow out containers. Mine is the one in the Anderson flat where I did drastic root work but no pruning. Others did pruning but no root work. Some did it all. Pruning and root work all at once. I think the all at once are further in development. But the test will be the comparison summer of 2020.





Landscape tree in bloom at Irene's house, mine in bloom on the ground in front of Irene's tree.

flowers 2016
fruit


fall color


2016 one I left tall, and did the serious root work to get into 4 inches deep (10 cm) anderson flat, 17 x 17 x 5 inches (52 x 52 x 12.5 cm) I'm thinking I will reduce this to either a single trunk, or a 2 trunk clump. Not happy with the awkward crook in the largest diameter trunk.


Number 2 - I chopped short and to a single trunk right away, spring 2015, then spring 2016 moved to an anderson flat. What I had pruned, I stuck in the flat as cuttings. None of the cuttings took. I am keeping this one as a single trunk.




This year I need to clean up the scars on #2, and do some serious pruning on #1.

#1 bloomed and produced fruit every year, but I left it tall. #2 has not bloomed since I chopped it back. I'm hoping it will start blooming again. I suspect you have to stop pruning before the middle of July if you want flowers the following spring.

All in all, I have not paid these as much attention as I could have. I could have pushed them faster. But they are nice. Disease free so far. And very reminiscent of a crab apple, but with smaller leaves, earlier flowers.

 

[coh]

Nice work @Leo in N E Illinois . Good group project. Please keep us posted. I'm hoping to dig mine up this spring and do some root
work but there are other projects that are higher priority so...

BTW, I have a few of these in the yard as landscape/edible plantings. The birds always seem to know just when the fruit is ripe enough for them,
but not quite as ripe as I like. They strip off all the fruit in a couple of days.