Running Serviceberry
 

Sorry orchid & cp folks, but my first love in plants is North American natives! This is one of my absolute faves, because it's beautiful AND tasty! Amelanchier stolonifera, the Running Serviceberry. Most members of the genus get pretty big, 10' & up, but this one stays compact, 3'-5' high so I can reach all those yummy berries! Of course with a genus name like stolonifera if you give it an inch it will take a mile, horizontally speaking! This plant will be auctioned for the benefit of the NASC. Come have a look! NASC Benefit Auction 2014

I like growing berries and fruit and we usually have something to eat from strawberry season until apple season. If I had the space, I'd likely be interested to add that one, too, but, alas, I just filled the last little nook with cranberries.
The robins fight to nest in our yard....

Cranberries? If yours are like mine, you didn't give them enough room!

No, I give them all the room that I want them to have. :)
I have so many things that I should have contained but didn't and they cause me endless hours of chopping and digging. I am finally learning my lesson...I think. :)

If you planted lowbush cranberries in the ground, you haven't learned your lesson! ;)

The American cranberries aren't too bad. I actually grew them before, when I had the pond. Blocking them with stepping stones, like many well-behaved herbs should work pretty well.
Compared to tansy, filberts and elderberry, cranberries are very well behaved. :)

Yeah, I'm regretting my filbert!

I have two of them. :(

At least you get nuts! I have my single pruned into a tree and there are 25 new suckers that I have to remove each year to keep it that way!

As a way of remembering my summers visiting my grandparents and uncle in Saskatchewan, two summers ago I planted some serviceberries - Saskatoon Berries, Amelanchier alnifolia, in my front yard, and they are doing great.

Now, if I can keep the damned deer away from them, I might get to taste one some day.