Friday Fabulous Flower - Juneberry

It's June! When else do you expect to get juneberry? Of course the shrub (Amelanchier - there are several species) flowered a couple of months ago and now the flowers are at the stage of seed dispersal when we usually call them fruits. They are little red to purple pomes that taste a bit like a very mild blueberry, and they are a bit seedy. They may taste best a bit under ripe, but birds love them, so this is an excellent border shrub for wildlife. The plant is also called shadbush, service berry (pronounced "sar-vis" in many places), wild plum, and a number of other common names. Generally they are easy to grow plants in this region and they are quite cold hardy for you people up north. Unfortunately the foliage is also liked by Japanese beetles, a newish scourge in our area.