Amelanchier lamarkii
A perfect small garden tree with interest throughout the year
The bed nearest our house is filled with woodland plants: clipped box, textured ferns, billowing Japanese forest grass, white foxgloves and irises. It is very close to the house and can be viewed close up from the dining room kitchen glazed doors. It is very beautiful with its textural quality and cool calm sophistication and enjoyable to watch as the seasons change. However, there was always a sense that it was a bit bare – something missing. It really needed a canopy of foliage and some trunks, but being so close to the house it wasn’t obvious what the right shrub or tree should be.
After a good deal of searching online I alighted on the Snowy mespilus (Amelanchier lamarkii) also known as Juneberry, Serviceberry, Sarvistree, Shadbush, Swamp sugar pear, Current tree, Indian pear, Saskatoon berry, Canadian medlar and in Germany the Rock pear.
The Snowy mespilus is a large-shrub or small tree originating in North America, but naturalised in Europe and widely planted the world over. It is available as a standard with a clean straight trunk, but I wanted a multi-stemmed specimen with more angular stems.
It seemed to have many of the characteristics I was looking for along with brilliant autumn and spring colour, white flowers, and fruit. The photo above shows it 3 months after planting with the berries on show.
What has always been missing in this part of the garden is the woodland canopy. Not just a ceiling of leaves to create dappled shade, but the bare stems rising from the underplanting. This year I remedied the omission by adding a semi-mature tree. the problem was to find just the right one. It needed to be something with enough instant impact, but also slow growing and ultimately controllable – especially as I would be planting it within 3m (10ft) of the foundations of our extension.
I found a source online: Paramount Plants who had an end of winter sale (40% off) and a nice range of large containerised trees. You could even select the exact one you wanted as each had its own 360 degree video! I always mull things over, but when I looked again a week later there was only one left! I placed the order there and then: £344 including delivery. It arrived a few weeks later, in early March.
After digging a large hole the tree was eased into place (which was quite a task as the rootball was very heavy); it was then rotated, tilted a little this way and that, and examined from several major viewpoints to make sure it looked good from every angle. It was then backfilled and watered thoroughly. An initial prune removed crossing branches and sharpened up its outline. The result was delightful…
Soon after planting – APRIL 2019
The Snowy mespilus starts the year in late March/early April by breaking out in fine downy buds. These are white with a pink-coppery tinge to the stems: Very beautiful to see so early in the year, and definitely ‘snowy’ as the tree’s common name indicates.
Here it is in flower a week later. The flowers are individually small (about 4cm across) with five pure white petals and yellow stamens in the centre which attract early bees. Emerging just behind them are the juvenile leaves which have a distinctly coppery-brown colour.
The flowers are particularly luminous in the early evening, really shining in the gloaming and later in the moonlight.
As April proceeds the flowers gradually go over to be replaced by the unfolding foliage. The coloration turning from white to copper as it goes. The young foliage is translucent and looks beautiful with the sunlight behind it int he morning light.
Mid-April flowers (April 16th 2019) Immature fruit follow as the foliage unfolds (April 16th 2019)
By mid April (see above) I had mulched the surface around the base of the tree and planted some dwarf mundo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus ‘Nippon’), which in time will form a little carpet of evergreen grassy foliage. It is very slow growing, but I have seen large clumps looking glorious. Being short and shade tolerant they will hopefully help show off the grey stems of the Snowy mespilus without obscuring it, even in winter.
The ferns, iris and Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa) are only just getting going, so the Snowy Mespilus has definitely extended the season of interest of this bed by several weeks.
MAy 2019
By mid-May the copper colours of spring had given way to a calm green. The two photos below show how the tree makes a good division between the house and the small sitting area near the greenhouse. The foliage is quite open producing a dappled shade — ideal for the woodland plants below, and for the Lonicera hedge behind it. I will prune it annually to limit its growth, but this year nothing needs doing except enjoying it.
June 2019
Another common name of Amelanchier lamarkii is Juneberry, and indeed the berries ripen in June, gradually turning dark red before going nearly black. These little fruits are edible and have a mild apple flavour, which accounts for one of the other names of this species: Apple Serviceberry.
This page will be updated in the future to show a full season of this delightful little tree.
UPDATE: OCTOBER 2019
The birds stripped the berries from the Amelanchier in a matter of days! But the tree went on to look beautiful all summer: fresh green and delightful.
At the beginning of October — earlier than I expected — it began to show autumn colouration: at first, just tinges of copper, but quickly becoming more orange, then red. Here it is mid-month:
This close-up of the foliage shows the vivid colouration and pretty veining of the leaves. Amelanchier is known for its reliable autumn colour, which is all the more impressive for starting so early and not requiring a frost to kick-start the change.
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UPDATE: 2020
After a great start to its second year (lots of flowers and berries again) the Amelanchier has proved to be the perfect small tree for this bed.
As you can see in the photo below, it really sets the scene for the shade-loving plants beneath it:
By mid-summer, though, I became concerned as leaves took on autumn tints and started to fall. I actually thought it might be dying.
By late July it had lost half or more of its leaves, but it then stabilised. I made a few enquiries and a number of possibilities came to light:
- It had been a very dry spring. In fact, throughout the first COVID lockdown from Late March until June, we had months of almost unbroken sun with hardly any rain. Although I had watered the bed, perhaps the tree was suffering heat/drought stress.
- When delivered, the tree was in a very large pot, with a rootball nearly 2ft deep. Planting it in a clay soil, many of the lower roots would have suddenly found themselves in cold, wet, clammy clay – waterlogged fro most of the winter. Trees develop roots as they grow to suit the soil they find themselves in. Grown in a pot they have near perfect drainage and aeration — conditions that are naturally found only in the top 6 to 12 inches of most soils. After planting, it is quite possible that this tree has had to jettison many of its lower roots, and develop a wider, shallower network to replace them.
Whatever the reason, it seems to have got through. Here it is in early autumn, still clinging to the remaining foliage which it kept from July until November.
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UPDATE: 2021
The Amelanchier kicked off the year with a glorious display of flowers. I particularly like this view with the dark green hedge behind it showing off its handsome grey stems and flowers so clearly.
Below is a gallery showing the succession of flowers, new leaves and berries over the next six weeks (April 2021 to early May 2021). Click to view larger:
Flowers emerge with foliage April 2021 Flowers are charming and delicate After flowering the new foliage is copper (backlit by evening sun, late April 2021) Close up of the young foliage May 2021: foliage turning green and berries swelling
Very informative, lovely photo’s. Thank you.
My pleasure Rebecca. Glad you found it useful.
Thanks for the article! I’ve wanted an Amelanchier Lamarckii in my garden for a couple of years now and this year I’ve finally decided to go for it. I’ve checked for affordable examples locally without luck and have been in touch with a few companies online, who have either shown me pictures of pretty tatty looking specimens or have piled on unforeseen charges at the checkout. Inspired by your experience, and your inspirational photographs, I checked out Paramount Plants and I’ve just pulled the trigger on one of a very similar size and shape to yours. I hope mine brings me just as much pleasure as yours clearly does you.
Hi Jonathan, thanks for stopping by and leaving your thoughts.
Great to hear you found a reliable source. Hopefully it will settle in well.
One thing I learned is to water it frequently in the first couple of years – not to drowned it, but to ensure it does not dry out in the top 6 to 12 inches (especially in summer). When you plant a tree with a large root ball, the roots at the bottom often die off. They were accustomed to being in a free draining pot then suddenly they are buried in the bottom of a pit (clay in my case) where they remain waterlogged for much of the year. The plant will eventually adapt but will rely on the shallower roots for a number of years. It may drop leaves prematurely in the summer, and may not put on much growth while it adjusts. Regular light watering and mulching will probably help.
Thanks, Keir! Great tips there. I wonder if I should put something free draining at the bottom of the planting hole. While we’re not on clay here, the soil can get quite claggy and water logged over autumn and winter.
Often, improving the surrounding soil rather than the bottom of the hole is better. In the worst case (heavy clay) digging deeper only improves drainage if it is deep enough to break through to a new, permeable strata. In my garden, that’s over 8ft down! Rubble or gravel drainage is ineffective and just sits there like rocks at the bottom of a pond (Of course in your soil it might be better)
Digging a wider hole and improving the drainage of the surrounding soil will reduce pooling, and help the tree grow more horizontal roots into non-waterlogged soil.
Thanks!
By the way, I’d love to see an update on your tree this year, if you have the time. I hope the tree I’m sent has a similar structure to yours (the multiple stems coming out from a single one), but I guess it’s the luck of the draw. I’ve obviously ordered a multi stem, but they can vary so much in terms of how many stems exit the soil.
Love your photos and advice, I bought an Amelanchier last month 80L from the Dingle Nursery in Welshpool. Not long after it was planted looked very unhappy so put back in the pot and it’s now looking much healthier but puzzling now where to plant it because it’s obvious it didn’t like where we planted it, I think not enough sun and also not enough water even though watered regularly
I think it is inherently stressful for older trees that have been raised in pots. Their roots have adapted to conditions that are quite different to those found in the ground (e.g. oxygen levels, drainage etc). My guess is that the tree needs several years once planted (assuming it survives) to grow a new set of roots adapted to the new ground.
Thanks Keir for your advice still thinking where to plant it, looking OK now back in pot
I had been looking into these trees when I came across your article. It was so helpful to see the specimen in a ‘real’ garden and highlighting the seasons with photos. Expanding on your personal experience/knowledge of this tree was much appreciated. Thank you.
That’s great to hear. It’s exactly why I write this blog, so that I can share my real-life experience. Personally, I always want to hear from real gardeners (rather than encyclopaedia or commercial articles) when I’m researching gardening topics.