Aronia is a beautiful shrub in the vast rose family. It could easily be planted for looks alone; the white flowers are gorgeous in late spring and it’s fall foliage is rich with stunning reds.
Aronia grows to be a full sized shrub, with stems and suckers that can easily root and spread the plant wider and wider.
However, many people are interested in aronia for its very nutritious berries. They are quite rich in antioxidants, considered by some to be a super food! The astringent fruit is generally not consumed raw, rather it is juiced fresh and mixed with sweeter ingredients to make a super nutritious drink.
Varieties Available This Year:
Viking – a standard commercial Russian variety with a history of being used in pie production, but also used for making juice.
McKenzie – another standard commercial variety with very large fruit.
Seedlings –Â Anecdotally, many growers don’t find much of a difference in fruit quality between named varieties and seedling plants, especially when seedlings are grown from named varieties.
What Are Seedlings?
Seedlings are plants that have been grown directly from a seed. They are genetic individuals whose traits that are not exactly known. Seedlings are in contrast with plants which have been cloned, as cloned plants are sure to have certain characteristics.
Often seedlings share characteristics with their parents, but exactly how much is shared depends on the species of plant. Having good parents certainly doesn’t hurt!
Growth Parameters:
Considered self fertile, but as usual a cross pollinator always help!
Wild plants are medium-sized shrubs reaching maturity at 3-5 feet in height and rarely exceeding 7 feet. Commercial varieties are larger, with sizes listed from 5 ft at maturity all the way up to 10 ft! Quite the difference, probably site specific.
Think of blueberries as you plant, as aronia is an “acid-loving shrub of swamps, bogs, lakeshores, and occasionally dry rocky ridges or sandy upland sites.” (from “Nature’s Garden” by Samuel Thayer)
In my experience though aronia does great in our average clay soils.
Thankfully fresh aronia berries do not get eaten much by birds.