GREAT AMERICANS: CHOKECHERRY
The Monday Garden, a FREE e-publication
Eco-gardening is at its best in The Monday Garden
June 13, 2004, Issue 116
Around my town, in May, you can’t miss the ornamental Japanese cherries . Beautiful but they’re mostly bred to be sterile; so, while they aren’t invasive, environmentally, they’re just a pretty face (except to trunk-boring insects). Fortunately, our bountiful native chokecherries also abound. Some are intentionally-planted cultivars but many are nature’s come-by-chance gifts.
Picture: Chokecherry fruit ripening on Bedford Street, in Stamford CT, June 2004
Since the birds spread the seeds, you could consider chokecherries (Prunus virginiana), growing in dense thickets along the roadsides and in the hedges, as part of the birds’ on-going habitat restoration project. It’s one native that can compete with many of the invasive plants that like the same sites.