They might be planted too deeply. When you replant try raising them up.

Chokecherries (P. virginiana) sucker like crazy. The species eventually forms a thicket. It's impossible to grow them to a single stem (I've tried). You typically get one tall stem surrounded by multitudes of shorter ones, branches all interlaced. Maximun height is upwards of 20 feet for the tallest stems.

Hmmmmm.....the trees in my backyard that I thought were chokecherries must be something else. Mine grow like trees but have many short branches coming out all over the place. The wood is very brittle and the branches break in the slightest wind. We cut down a few in the woods and they have suckered like crazy out of the stumps. I'm wondering what these are now. They look like the pictures of chokecherries that I've seen.

When trying to ID some volunteer saplings I at first thought they were P. virginiana, but then discovered they were the very similar looking P. serotina (black cherry). The leaves and bark are quite alike, except that the black cherry leaves are a little slimmer and usually have hairs growing out of the midrib on the undersides. Black cherry will grow into a large, single trunk tree.

Good luck getting rid of the suckers. It can be done, but it takes a number of years. Five years ago I tried to tame a chokecherry "hedge" into a single tree. I picked the best looking "tree" of the bunch and pruned everything else away. Then I proceeded with a pick axe to get rid of suckers. Each year I go through the same process and slowly but surely there are fewer suckers. Now the bad part. I was just noticing the other day that my chokecherry "tree" isn't looking all that well. There are more dead branches all the time. The birds still flock to that tree, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't have just left the hedge.

Tanna

thanks Lusina!! I just looked both up and you are right. The trees that I have are black cherry rather than choke cherry. My dad is the one that got me thinking it might be choke cherry and they do look similar. The birds do love them, but they do not sucker and grow into a single trunk tree. As I said they are a little messy as the branches break off easily in the wind.

Do the Chokecherries stay smaller if they have suckers and look more like a hedge? Or does a chokecherry "shrub" look and grow more like a Servicebery shrub, the way all the suckers come from the roots?

I stopped pinching the suckers and there at at least three suckers coming up like crazy on each plant. The "trees" are supposed to grow up to 25 feet tall but I am wondering if I will get a 25 foot tall hedge or something shorter?

Can I prune them when they are older/bigger and not loose their ability to fruit? I want the fruit to attract backyard birds and wildlife.

Since this is not growing into the neat small tree form that I first envisioned, I am trying to think of the best spot to plant it but am having lots of troubles due to my confusion as to what it is going to look like as it grows older.

It is going to look like a dense thicket, up to 25 feet tall. It suckers MUCH more than serviceberries do. Think of the NYC skyline from a distance--a dense cluster of tall columns--and that's what it looks like in winter (except with branches). In summer, it just looks like a lot of bushes growing close together.

I have a choke cherry tree in my front yard (planted by the the birds) and I have managed to get it to grow to one stem. It does tend to be rather fragile though and the top tends to snap off. Its 15 to 20 feet tall now.

Richard

Thanks, Elaine. I am going to plant at least two of them at the back edge of my property. Its an unused corner anyway so that should work out well.

I have a choke cherry tree. I prune off all the suckers several times a growing season and pile some mulch on the rooted areas that are sending the shoots.
It's a pain but this tree is really pretty. VAL

I quit pinching off the suckers so that all the chokecherries are currently growing suckers. Will see how they do.

I planted one by mistake in the back row of a perennial garden (big mistake), so I try to keep that one to a single trunk. The ones in the woodland just keep spreading. If you cut back the suckers that grow close to the main stem, it just sends them farther away. Great bird tree, however. All native cherries are excellent for wildlife--in addition to being a favorite bird food, they are a host plant for a number of butterfly species. We are surrounded by wild black cherry around here, so I didn't include that species in my plantings, but they continually come up on their own, no doubt planted by birds.

The Choke Cherries are dormant now. They didn't grow that much during this past year. I hope they take off next year as I really want them in my bird attractive landscape.

They will grow enormously in the second year, both in height and in number of suckers. I think all trees of this genus are relatively short-lived.

St. Lawrence Nursery is offering Garrinton Chokecherry for this spring. As far as I know, this is the first to offer them in the USA as DNA Gardens in Canada introduced them there.

I just learned from a web search about shrub cherries that-------

Pincherry, Nanking cherry, chokecherry and sandcherry all cross-pollinate.

I didn't know that. Anyway, my chokecherries are too small to flower but my Nanking cherries will be blooming some this year.

Oh Dang, are chokecherries invasive??? 'Cause I have them too. They seemed to have behaved themselves for years and years, but now they're going everywhere. As invasives, they're going to have to just take a number and wait in line with all the rest of them!

Chokecherry is native. It is common and doesn't appeal to many people as an ornamental but I wouldn't call it invasive. It is frequent in areas that have been cleared.

Found this site with lots of info about shrub fruits such as chokecherry, Nanking Cherry and others that I thought was very good and interesting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit Bearing Shrubs

I love my choke cherry, but it puts up suckers every spring. If I had it out in the open I would let them grow, I would like a thicket. Mine is between a storage barn and a fence, I have to keep it small at the base. I don't think it is native here. It is very pretty and is expensive to buy. I love the white flowers that resemble lilac blossoms but more dainty. It has two trunks and the largest one is as big around as a cantalope.

Well, this spring I didn't try to pinch off the suckers and they are suckering like crazy. Lots of new spring growth too. Much of the growth is very low on the shrub so they don't have a tree habit at all. Still, even with the new growth the Choke Cherry Saplings are only 16-18 Inches high. They were REALLY small last year.

These things really, really look like shrubs now with all the suckers and bushy growth. I can't believe I originally thought they would be tree-like.

Hi, Jonesy, this is quite a late response, but I was curious after reading that you thought chokecherry might not be native to your area, so I looked it up on the PLANTS Database. According to them, it's native pretty much everywhere in the US except for the extreme Southeast. Quite a range! Of course, it might not be common in your particular local region.

Mine are still too small to bloom next Spring, although they grew well over the summer.

I cut down all my Choke Cherries. Birds don't eat the cherries because they are too bitter. Plus the fruit ripens in the middle of summer. The time of year when food is most plentiful. It is a great tree for attracting insects however.

Once the root system gets established it takes many years of constant mowing to kill them. One of the hardest to kill of all plants.

After I wiped out my chokecherries I replaced them with Canada Plums.

Who says birds don't eat the cherries? They always disappear the second they ripen. What's "too bitter" to us tends to taste just fine to wildlife!

This is one of those plants that in nature is extremely widespread and adapts well to many different sites--the kind of plant that's sure to be a favorite wildlife food.

I got two chokecherry saplings at our state fair in the end of summer. I put them in pots for the duration of the growing season, and want to put them in the ground this winter. I would like to plant them next to a 3 foot high wall to screen out the neighbors' backyard.

The amount of area I want to screen out is about 10-12 feet. Understanding that chokecherries sucker quite a bit, would what develops from them be able to screen out such a width? Also, how tall can I expect them to grow in a few years?

Thanks,

Paul

Mine are still in pots but have greened up nicely this spring and are already growing. I am finially going to plant them this spring as I feel they have gotten large enough by now. They are really very bushy and shrubby, not tree like at all.

Are we talking about the same choke chery? Does any of yours have tentcatapillars nests? How could anyone want this tree??????? The cherries are on the sidewalk and if you step in them and drag them into your home they stain the carpet, when the birds eat them they stain your car, of what value would they be to anybody? I have several bird feeders, fresh water for drinking and bathing but this tree has to go! I have some very expensive shrubs so she will have to care.

I have a dozen or two of Prunus virginiana in the wild area in the back of my lot. They are amongst the few natives that are growing back there, in an area that has been colonized by many invasive non-natives! In fact, I have rescued many of the Choke cherries from the strangling vines of Oriental bittersweet.

They are about 30-40 years old and still going strong. None of them are suckering, they are all growing as small trees. Not sure why?

Choke cherry is not a terribly ornamental tree - I wouldn't grow it as a garden specimen. But they are great for the wild area.

They are about a week away from flowering right now - but here is a photo of the blooms from last year. I have never really paid attention to the berries or whether the birds eat them. I think I will pay closer attention this year.

{{gwi:1349063}}

2nd post but I wanted to respond to Grimaldi too - perhaps a Choke Cherry is not the best tree for your location. Apparently yours is messy, and they are susceptible to a wide range of pests and diseases. IMO, they are not terribly ornamental either.

However, they are an excellent wildlife tree. I have several feeders and bird baths, but I also want to provide as many natural sources of food for the birds as possible.

Birds still depend on natural sources for the majority of their food, even when feeders are available. Birds and other critters also need shrubbery and trees for habitat.

Grimaldi, What value would they be to anybody?? I agree, they are not the best for areas where people walk, but the birds love the berries. I guess it depends on your point of view. I have several in the yard away from walk areas. They are a valuable wildlife tree if of no value to the suburban homeowner.

Finally, after much fruitless research I see I have black cherry, not choke cherry. This tree and others we had taken down 30 years ago are 40 feet, all trunk- not straight- for about 39 feet then sparse branches and leaves. This tree contributes nothing that I can see. I think I have a wild sapling growing but I'm not sure if its the same tree. Is this a 'wild' tree as I can't imagine anyone cultivating this tree?

Has anyone here tasted pincherry or chokecherry jelly?

I'm thinking of growing one of the two for jelly. If chokecherry, my concern is that it and its colony may die off from x-disease and spread that to the sweetcherry tree i have.

I'm also concerned about growing pincherry on a site that only gets 6 hours sunlight and this only from the south (not east or west).

I guess i would pick choke cherry if i wanted one for jelly. The fruits are bigger and juicier.

Ive grown the Canada Red choke cherry, the robins loved the fruits. Its a narrow, upright tree, i guess you'd have to get a ladder to harvest the fruits.

I mail ordered a pin cherry, and it grew some 15 ft tall in a partially shaded location, didn't fruit. I grew it because the smaller red fruits were supposed to be attractive to bluebirds.
Now they are eating mulberries and the mealworms i set out for them.

Here is a link that might be useful: cherry recipes