Take a Moment for Forethought

Luscious photos now splash pages of mail-order catalogs, the web, and plant tags at local nurseries. It’s hard to remain rational about planting this time of year, and more so the colder the last winter’s climate.

What I’m suggesting is to give plantings some forethought and, rather than looking for either ornamental or edible trees and shrubs, considering plants that fulfill both functions. That is, trees and shrubs that earn their keep year-‘round with leaves that remain lush and verdant all summer, then light up with fall color, and, of course, bear fruit, and perhaps unfold with eye-catching blossoms in spring.

Persimmons ripening

Lots of trees and shrubs fill this bill, but here I’d like to restrict consideration to fruits that I would pop into my mouth right out in the garden; doctoring up as jam or in a pie is not obligatory. 

A Vine & a Tree, Among My Favorites

Consider, for example, kiwifruit (Actinidia spp.), introduced into this country over 100 years ago as ornamentals, making them common denizens of many old gardens.

Actinidia kolomikta leaf variegation

I wonder how many visitors to these historic estates have walked under arbors draped with this attractive woody vine, unaware of ambrosial fruits hidden beneath the canopy of leaves. It’s only in the past few decades that this vine has come into its own as a fruit plant. There are species, all bearing tasty fruit, adaptable to tropical, to subtropical climates, and to cold temperate climates.

Male and female kiwi flowers are on separate plants, but one male can sire up to nine females. These plants do require a sturdy trellis on which to grow and — unless you grow them mostly as ornamentals — annual pruning.

         Juneberry (Amelanchier spp.), which parades also under the names service tree, shadblow, or saskatoon, is commonly grown as an ornamental small tree or as a large shrub. This native plant is attractive year-’round. The smooth, grey bark adds interest to the stark winter landscape. Here in zone 5, white blossoms unfold on stems in mid-April.

The small, blue fruits resemble blueberries in appearance but not in flavor, best described as having the sweetness and richness of a sweet cherry, with a hint of almond.

Juneberries are actually in the Rose Family and share some problems of that family. In marginal sites for fruit growing — such as, unfortunately, here on my farmden — they suffer pest problems.

Another native plant, American persimmon (Diospyros americana), is among the easiest of fruits to grow, rarely beset by any pests, or needing pruning. The fruit is smaller, softer and drier than the more familiar Asian persimmon, with a richer flavor, something like a wet, dried apricot that has been drizzled with honey and given a dash of spice.

Persimmons ripening in late summer

Delicious! Ripe, edible fruits dangle like Christmas ornaments from the branches well into fall.

Even after leaf drop, still delicious

Persimmon fruits are puckery until ripe, so it’s important to grow a selection that ripens within the growing season. Here in zone 5, I grow the variety Szukis, which has never failed to produce a good crop except for two seasons over the past thirty plus years. Another plus for Szukis is that it’s self-pollinating. (The trees are hardier in colder climates but the fruits may lack time to ripen.)

Persimmon grows to become a tall tree, with graceful, arching limbs and an interesting checkered bark. Pruning can keep the tree smaller.

Two Shrubs Worthy of Attention

Do you have some room or need a bush to plant? How about one of my favorites, Nanking cherry (Prunus tomentosum). I grow a row of them along my driveway, and in mid-April, as the branches overflow with pinkish white blossoms, they literally stop (bicycle) traffic.

  Bright, red cherries follow the blossoms, ripening in early summer. The cherries are small, with flavor somewhere between that of sweet and tart cherries. Its native home in northwest Asia, with low rainfall and temperatures that plummet way below zero degrees Fahrenheit in winter and soar near 100 in summer, gives testimonial to the cold and drought tolerance of this plant.

Another ornamental, edible shrub, clove currant (Ribes odoratum), was common over a century ago but too rarely planted today. Back then, it was grown near windows of homes so that the clove and vanilla scent of its flowers could waft indoors. The flowers themselves are red-tinged yellow trumpets, two or three inches long and dangling in profusion from the branches like charms on a bracelet.

As if beauty and aroma were not enough, clove currant is also very drought and cold tolerant, as would be expected from a plant native to the Great Plains. 

The bush is best used informally, as it is somewhat unkempt due to extensive suckering and arching of the long branches to the ground under the weight of the fruit. The black berries ripen over a long period in summer; although not sweet, they are juicy and pleasantly aromatic.

And Down on the Ground . . .

How about an edible groundcover rather than the usual ivy, vinca, or pachysandra? Two of my favorites are the related lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) and lowbush blueberry (V. angustifolium). Both are very cold-hardy and native to North America. Lingonberry is also native in other northern regions, most notably in Scandinavia where mere mention of the name brings moist eyes to expat Scandinavians.

Lingonberry is often compared to another edible, native groundcover, Thanksgiving cranberry. I think that does a disservice to lingonberry. Lingonberry holds its shiny, green leaves year ‘round; so does cranberry but its leaves turn muddy purple in winter. Lingonberry fruits are tart but pleasantly so, enough to pop into your mouth as is; few people would do that with a cranberry.

The sweet, grey-blue fruits of lowbush blueberry make up the blueberry industry of Maine. The plants are deciduous, their green leaves turning fiery crimson in the fall.

The low-growing lingonberry and lowbush blueberry plants spread by under ground runners. Planted six to twelve inches apart, they will spread to completely fill an area.

Lowbush blueberry in flower

I grow lingonberry and lowbush blueberry together in a raised bed behind a rock wall in front of my home. They are congenial in the garden (both require very acidic soil), with blueberries’ crimson leaves mingling with lingonberries’ glossy, green leave and red fruits in autumn.

Lowbush blueberry & lingonberry

In spring, stems are decorated by small, urn-shaped, white blossoms. Both plants retain their healthy look all summer long.

Easier, Peasier, and More Info

As a group, the above-mentioned, dual-purpose plants are far less finicky to grow than more common fruiting plants like apples and peaches, and remain attractive over a longer period. The above plants all do fine with only occasional, corrective pruning.

(This post is NOT excerpted from my book Landscaping with Fruit. Needless to say, more information about each of these fruits as well as other ornamental/edible trees in shrubs is offered in that book, available from the usual sources or, signed, from www.leereich.com/books.)

Persimmons (not growing) on a branch