Saturday, May 15, 2021

A year of flowers #26: Bitter cherry

 

 
Prunus emarginata

It was about five years ago that the birds planted Bitter cherry in our front yard.  At that point, I knew to check it out because it was likely a native, but an "expert" told me that there was no way this was a prunus species, so I was unsure of what I had.  Then I noticed huge shrubs of it closer to town--it has a weird growth habit where branches shoot off at 90º angles, and I realized that my expert was wrong.  In her defense, knowing the range of garden plants and trees that do well here is an entirely different enterprise than knowing the natives.  I moved both of the plants out into the prairie and this one, entwined with a Chokecherry, survived, and the other did not...

No comments:

Post a Comment