{"id":3208,"date":"2019-10-31T00:12:16","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T07:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-840\/"},"modified":"2023-08-08T13:08:44","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T20:08:44","slug":"amelanchier-species-and-their-growth-habit","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/amelanchier-species-and-their-growth-habit\/","title":{"rendered":"Amelanchier species and their growth habit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>I am a landscape designer, and I want to use Amelanchier in my design. Which species are most readily available in the trade? I have seen some which have a single trunk, and others which are multiple. Is the growth habit specific to the species or cultivar?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From what I can tell by searching <a href=\"http:\/\/plantinfo.umn.edu\/\">Plant Information Online<\/a>, there are quite a few cultivated varieties and species of Amelanchier which are widely available from both retail and wholesale sources.<\/p>\n<p>As far as which species and cultivars are more likely to have single or multiple trunks, I found a few descriptions in <em>Dirr&#8217;s Hardy Trees and Shrubs<\/em> by Michael Dirr (Timber Press, 1997.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Amelanchier arborea<\/em> is described as &#8220;a small tree or a large multistemmed shrub of rounded outline.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><em>Amelanchier canadensis<\/em> &#8220;is hopelessly confused in the landscape trade. In general, it is an upright, suckering, tightly multistemmed shrub with a dome-shaped crown.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><em>Amelanchier x grandiflora<\/em> is &#8220;a naturally occurring hybrid between <em>Amelanchier arborea<\/em> and <em>A. laevis<\/em>. It exhibits characteristics intermediate between those of the parent species [&#8230;] The best of the [cultivars] include: &#8216;Autumn Brilliance,&#8217; with red fall color, &#8216;Ballerina,&#8217; with brick-red fall color, and &#8216;Princess Diana,&#8217; with red fall color. &#8216;Robin Hill&#8217; and &#8216;Rubescens&#8217; have pink buds that fade upon opening.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><em>Amelanchier laevis<\/em> is &#8220;not too different from the other species, especially <em>Amelanchier arborea<\/em>, in flower, fruit, bark, and growth habit. The principal differences are the purplish to bronze color of the emerging leaves and lack (almost) of hairs on the leaves and flower stalks.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here at the Center for Urban Horticulture, we have a grove of <em>Amelanchier x grandiflora<\/em>, all of which are multi-stemmed. Arthur Lee Jacobson lists several additional species in his <em>North American Landscape Trees<\/em> (Ten Speed Press, 1996), including the Northwest native <em>Amelanchier alnifolia<\/em>, which he says is &#8220;little planted, especially as a tree.&#8221; Its leaves are rounder, with coarser teeth. It flowers later, and its fall color is inferior. Its berries are larger.<\/p>\n<p>You might also explore the <a href=\"https:\/\/landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu\/\">Oregon State University Landscape Plants<\/a> database to see comparative images and descriptions.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to intervene and shape the growth habit of Amelanchier, the American Horticultural Society&#8217;s <em>Pruning &amp; Training<\/em> (edited by Christopher Brickell; DK Publishing, 1996) says that this &#8220;upright, multi-stemmed shrub can be allowed to develop naturally with minimal pruning. It may also be trained with a short trunk to form a small, branched-headed tree.&#8221; The time to prune would be when dormant in the winter, or after flowering in late spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am a landscape designer, and I want to use Amelanchier in my design. Which species are most readily available in the trade? I have seen some which have a single trunk, and others which are multiple. Is the growth habit specific to the species or cultivar? From what I can tell by searching Plant Information Online, there are quite a few cultivated varieties and species of Amelanchier which are widely available from both retail and wholesale sources. As far&#8230;<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/amelanchier-species-and-their-growth-habit\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Amelanchier species and their growth habit<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[291],"class_list":["post-3208","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-amelanchier"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/3208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=3208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}