Aronia melanocarpa / Black Chokeberry

It is my intent to begin a series of blog posts, many of which will focus on a particular plant in more detail. Aronia melanocarpa is my first selection. I feel it is an underappreciated plant, which offers many desirable qualities. It is a deciduous shrub native to the northeast U.S. To begin with, there is the delicious wine I am sipping as I write. Deep burgundy, rich and full bodied, well balanced tannin and acid, with a bit of wild berry skankiness. Aronia berries in full sun get loaded with easy to pick berry clusters, perfect for wine or juice production. This is not a sexy berry in some respects- it is not aromatic, plump, juicy, or loaded with sugar. Th be honest, I can only eat so many fresh raw berries and then I have had enough because the tannins are so high…..Hence the name”Chokeberry”. But perfect for wine!

On to praising the blooms! The plants are covered in white bloom clusters mid summer, which are a beautiful display. These flowers are nectar rich, so they attract butterflies, pollinators, (and supposedly even hummingbirds?) The deep purple, drooping berry clusters are also beautiful, and persistent. They remain on the bushes well into the fall leaf color season. It takes a few fall frosts to mellow out the berry flavor enough to provide early winter food for birds (the berries you left behind). The fall leaf color is consistent every season and is a brilliant red orange!

March, 2022

We are well stocked in Aronia bushes this spring!

This berry is so highly rated for it’s health benefits that I was determined to find a processing method to achieve raw juice with the tannins greatly reduced. The deep color is due to anthocyanins- a phenolic antioxidant - and by now we have all heard how great antioxidants are for our health, right? Aronia berries rate extremely high in antioxidant levels. However, anthocyanins are heat sensitive, so I wanted to avoid steam juicing or cooking the berries in my juice production.The solution ended up being to freeze the berries, thaw them, put them in a blender with equal parts water, (1 cup water, 1 cup berries) and pulse the mix. At this point the pulp strains easily, clear juice flows out, and yes!! - most of the tannins stay in the pulp for some reason.

The bushes I have in full sun get so much fruit on them that the branches arch over to the ground every year, and keep the bush form low, about 3’ tall. From a landscape perspective my favorite way to plant Aronia is in close proximity to other taller bushes, so they reach for light, and sort of crawl up into the other bush for support. Aronia is rather pest and disease free. It is accepting of part shade, but full sun produces more fruit. It can naturalize and grow well with little water, however for berry production in a garden water will produce better fruit. Widely adaptable, Aronia can handle boggy soils - great near ponds, or wet-in- winter places. Perfect for mixed shrub borders, open woodland gardens and naturalized areas.