We have an Amelanchier arborea in our front yard. It is growing as a large shrub. The fall color is spectacular.

I don't worry about mildew, but I do worry about cedar apple rust (called cedar service berry rust on Amelanchier). The Einsteins who planted this shrub before we moved here sited it directly under a mature red cedar tree, which we can't remove without exposing a lovely fern/hosta garden to the blazing sun. The cedar apple rust galls literally drip onto the serviceberry every spring, and I spend quite a bit of time spraying copper fungicide and picking up diseased foliage.

If you have red cedars within a mile or two, your Amelancier arboreas will be exposed to the spores, so keep them sprayed.

Also, when they bloom in the springtime, don't blink or you'll miss the show! Their bloom time is notoriously short. Ours lasts about two or three days, tops.

Thanks for your advice about the red cedar. I don't know if I would know what one looks like. The flower time is short but the form of the tree is what we were looking for. I hope it will look like the ones at the botanical garden!!! I think I am supposed to start trimming trunks out next fall according to the man who sold it to me if I want a tree look. I have never seen the shrub look. How many trunks does yours have. At the Garden they had one to three trunks a tree. I am excited about the fall color but mildew does bother me!!! I have a lilac bush that is going to go because during humid summers it looks awful. I have to admit I am now nervous that I picked something that is not going to turn out not to be what I wanted due to my lack of knowledge on trees.

These are good food for the birds. So if you like to feed birds, this tree/shrub will do fine. Lilacs tend to get so much mildew, because of the density of all the different branching it does. If you cut out part of it, to give it room to breath, it will have less mildew or none at all. Rule of thumb is to cut out 1/3 of the branches each growing season. For a lilac it would be after it blooms. If you leave it alone right now and wait till after it blooms next year, you can prune out the old then. You want to take out the largest of the branches/trunks/suckers.

We have a serviceberry bush that is probably 10 yrs old. No problems so far. We love it although the bloom is fast.
The nursery where we bought ours had one planted and the daughter was picking the berries for jam! They are tasty but I can't beat the birds to them!! They told us this is a native to the midwest.

lindy47,
Thankyou for your encouraging experience. How long did the tree take to get to a sugnifigant size? How big is yours now? Also how long is the fall color before the leaves fall off? Mine are only about two to three feet tall. Sorry so many questions. Thankyou!!!

Both:

Saw your post and thought that I would respond.

If you link to the site below, you'll find general and specific information on the "Downey Serviceberry" and once you arrive at the time and scroll down a bit, you'll find a link to its various "problems."

I will be planting one of these shrubs/trees in our back yard this fall - haven't had the time to finally "site" it as yet, but will do shortly. It has been spending it's first summer in a large pot. Hopefully, I'll be able to shape or trim it into a small single trunk tree.

In addition to this superb web site at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, you might explore the Morton Arboretum - Lisle, IL web site, who's "address" is just given below.

http://www.mortonarb.org/

If you scroll down a bit, you'll see a link to their "Tree and Shrub Selecton Guide" which contains some useful information on a few Amelanchier varieties - but not on the Amelanchier arborea - as well as extensive information within their "Plant Health Care" report.

Also buried within their "Tree and Shrub Selection Guide" is a link to the "Sterling Morton Library" which is beautiful and has an extensive collection of books on horticulture,etc. Buried within this library site, is a link to email questions to the reference librarians who work there.

If you haven't visited either place, I encourage you to do so, but plan for a day and a half visit at minimum to more fully enjoy the garden or arboretum.

I much prefer the resources at the Missouri Botanical Garden - mostly because of their "search" engine, better arrangement of the web page, the information, clearer photographs, the links provided, etc., but the Morton Arboretum is also a very excellent resource as well.

Hope this additional information and resources is most helpful.

Bill

Here is a link that might be useful: Amelanchier arborea - Plant of Merit