Regent Serviceberry

Regent is a serviceberry that stays a shrub. Most serviceberries grow into 20-foot trees, but Amelanchier alnifolia 'Regent' holds at 4 to 6 feet tall and wide, which puts it within reach of a mixed border or a small edible garden. It is hardy from Zone 2 through Zone 9, about as wide a range as any woody plant carries, and it starts fruiting within two or three seasons.

White flowers open in early spring before the leaves, among the first woody plants to bloom and a meaningful nectar source for bees emerging before much else is available. The fruit follows in early summer, purple-black and sweet, closer to a blueberry than anything else, and worth picking for pies and preserves if you get to it before the birds do. Fall foliage runs yellow through orange to red.

Serviceberry foliage feeds viceroy, tiger swallowtail, and striped hairstreak caterpillars.

This is the western serviceberry, native to the northern plains and mountain west rather than the East, which makes it more cold and drought tolerant than the eastern species and less comfortable in humid southern summers. It suckers modestly into a clump. Deer will browse it, so protect young plants where pressure is heavy.