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True Root Nursery

Chokecherry

Chokecherry

Species: Prunus virginiana

History: Chokecherry is native to most of North America and has a long history of usage among various indigenous peoples in Canada and the US. It is used to make a traditional food called pemmican, the root has medicinal uses, and the inner bark is used in some ceremonial smoking mixtures. There are some named cultivars and the University of Saskatchewan is working to develop more productive varieties.  

Why We Grow It: The small, dark purple fruits are quite astringent and have a large stone, earning them their name! This understory shrub can be used in agroforestry settings where the berries can be enjoyed by wildlife or made into jam or even wine by humans! The spikes of white flowers are also quite lovely.

Fruit Specs

Recommended Use: Preserves, wine

Fruit Size:

Storage:

Harvest: August - Late

Growing Specs

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 5

Soil Preference: Prefers loam but adaptable to different soils

Flowering Time: Spring - Late

Bloom Colour: White

Pollination Requirements: Somewhat self-pollinating but do better with another chokecherry planted nearby

Sun/Shade Requirements:

Shade tolerant (approx. 3-6 hours of sun daily)

General Growth Habits:

Small tree that usually reaches 1-6m in height but can grow up to 10m. Can be a host for black knot. Flowers May to June.

Shipping vs. Pick Up

CLICK HERE to see how shipping compares to pick up.

Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of trees across Canada (except BC due to CFIA regulations). We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courrier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc. We really appreciate if you can make an appointment to pick up, then we can be as organized as possible during our busy season.

Size at Purchase

Our ungrafted fruit tree seedlings, nut tree seedlings, berries, and other miscellaneous plants are categorized into the following sizes excluding the roots:

  • 5-15cm
  • 15cm+
  • 30cm+
  • 60cm+
  • 90cm+

All of these heights exclude the roots since seedlings and some berries will often have a lot of root growth but relatively little vegetative growth (ex. our Shagbark Hickories seedlings are often 5-15cm above the soil but will have roots that reach 20cm+ in length).

Not all of our berries and seedlings will be available in all of these grades since growth rate can vary significantly across species and even varieties. While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth, therefore you may find conventional nursery stock larger in some instances comparatively. 

Why plant small? It's best to transplant when a plant is young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot plants tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted ones planted at the same time, after a few years.

Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the plants are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

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