Serviceberry
Amelanchier canadensis
A native small tree or big shrub with clouds of white flowers before the leaves in spring, edible summer berries that birds love, and orange-red fall colour. It's a natural for wet spots, pond edges and woodland gardens in part shade; in full sun, keep the soil moist. It suckers into a clump, so prune it to size.
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- Mature size
- 20 × 17 ft
- 6 × 5.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to wet
- Blooms
- Apr
- Fall color Oct–Nov
Serviceberry at its mature size
A mature Serviceberry grows 15 to 25 feet tall and 15 to 20 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What Serviceberry looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Mar
Bare: many upright smooth silver-gray stems and fine twigs.
In flower · Apr
Leafless or just leafing: branches covered in small white star-like flowers in drooping clusters.
In leaf · May–Sep
Medium to dark green oval leaves, dense.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Orange-red to red with some yellow, fairly bright.
Photos
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Growing Serviceberry
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Small space, specimen, shade garden, rain garden, deer resistant, pollinators, and fall color
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Eastern North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Serviceberry, that’s about 17 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Serviceberry in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other serviceberries
Serviceberry
Apple ServiceberryAll drawn to the same scale.