Red Chokeberry
Aronia arbutifolia (ROSACEAE)
Planting and Growing Red Chokeberry
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow red chokeberry in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, berries, and seeds of red chokeberry
- Growing conditions for red chokeberry
- When and where to plant red chokeberry
- How to plant red chokeberry
- How to shape, prune and control growth of red chokeberry
- Watering, fertilizing, and care of red chokeberry
- Landscape uses of red chokeberry
- Pest and disease control for red chokeberry
Growing Red Chokeberry
Several cultivars of medium-growing, erect, branching, deciduous shrubs, 8–15 ft. (2.4–4.5 m) tall and 5–10 ft. (1.5–3 m) wide, with shiny, green, broadly oval, pointed leaves, 1–3-1/2-in. (25–90-mm) long, with pale green undersides, turning red in autumn.
Named cultivars with special habits or foliage colors may revert.
Black chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa, is a closely related species with similar care needs.
Red Chokeberry Planting and Care Guide
Flowers and Fruit
Many tiny, cream, white, tubular flowers, to 3/8-in. (10-mm) long, in tight clusters, to 2 in. (50 mm) wide, in spring, with bright red, round, berrylike, astringent fruit bearing seed in late autumn, persisting into winter.
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 4–10. Hardy.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist, well-drained soil. Fertility: Rich–average. 5.5–6.5 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Full sun to partial shade. Space 3–5 ft. (90–150 cm) apart. Best in full sun.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep evenly moist. Fertilize monthly. Shear to ground in late winter. Propagate by cuttings, layering, seed, suckers.
About This Species
Good choice for accents, borders, massed plantings in meadow, rock, turfgrass, woodland gardens and roadside plantings. Attracts birds. Pest and disease resistant.