Amur Cherry, Tough & Beautiful Hardy Decorative Tree

autumnal amur bing, originally uploaded by D'Arcy Norman.

The Amur Cherry, Prunus maackii, is an excellent tree for Calgary, and is deservedly popular.

Its cinnamon-coloured bark is attractive in winter. The flowers are white, in drooping racemes (similar to Mayday and chokecherries), showing up against the green leaves in spring.

I like the Amur Cherry as a shade tree. We have two in our backyard. Birds love this tree. The robins seem to like the berries and, earlier in the season, roost in the tree, perhaps finding insects to eat. Chickadees and nuthatches visit and stash birdseed. The peeling bark gives a lot of nooks and crannies for this.

This tree has lots of seasonal variation - never a dull moment. Reasonably fast-growing.

Some of the drawbacks:

• tall enough to get caught in wires leading to the house (15 to 20 feet)
• cherries are not edible but their dark black juice can be brought into the house on shoes during the week or two when the ripe berries are falling
• young tree may need staking (especially in the prairies with the prevailing west wind)
• branches are prone to crossing each other - careful pruning and shaping the tree can handle this

More information on the Amur Cherry can be found in the article, "Amur Cherry" by Susan Mahr, on the University of Wisconsin's Master Gardener webpages. I dont' disagree with Ms. Mahr's comment that the fruit can be used for jellies, but personally I wouldn't bother making pure cherry jelly from these. The flavour might be an interesting note to a jelly made from larger, sweeter fruits, but it's a matter of taste. I don't care for jellies that take as much sugar as a pure Amur Cherry jelly would.

Photo by D'Arcy Norman, shared under CC Attribution 2.0 License on Flickr.com. Thanks, D'Arcy!