I’m working on a longer term landscaping plan for my new house. I want to put a row of trees along a gravel driveway leading to the house. I’m in zone 5 b, Hudson River valley.
I have already planted ~ 35 fruit trees in my orchard. Mostly apple, five plums and one cherry.
I was hoping to plant cherries or pears along the road. Was hoping that I could find some varieties that were dual purpose - attractive landscape trees as well as producing good fruit. The landscape guy I was speaking with is trying to steer me away from that, and focusing purely on ornamental varieties.
So have you all found any varieties that are particularly attractive and could serve both purposes?
I think there are plenty of very attractive edibles to line a driveway!
Dwarf fruit trees would look cool.
Bush cherries seem like a great choice: attached is a pic of one of my nankings this morning. When cherry bushes are blooming they are visually stunning.
autumn olive is an attractive shrub, though it gets kind of big under good conditions, maybe goumi stays smaller
chinquapin or hazelnut bushes
aronia looks very pretty in fall
blueberry, raspberry, honeyberry, or blackberry look nice with berries on them
cornus mas is often planted as a landscaping tree, but is edible
I have ~ 300 feet of road. Tree line on one side, pasture on the other. I could definitely use a big tree - like a full sized cherry or pear. I’m not wedded to those however. I will be planting nut trees on part of the property as well as oaks, maples, hickories and locust.
Whatever you want to plant, consider disease resistant varieties. Cherry trees are pretty until cherry leave spot moves in. Your tree full of diseaed laeves would be unsightly. Same goes to scab on pears, cedar apple rust on apples, etc.
The two fruit trees that are often mentioned as very care free are jujubes and pawpaws. Both are pretty trees in their own rights. The question would be whether or not you like eating pawpaws or jujubes
I don’t find beautyberries astringent, although I never take many at a time. They taste like roses with a hint of pine. They are legitimately beautiful, and birds do love them.
I just thought of a few more options. Several Viburnums are edible. Some are semi-self-incompatable and require multiple cultivars for better fruit set. I planted Viburnum nudum ‘Winterthur’ and 'Brandywine" I got some fruit set but never got to try them. Viburnum trilobum and Viburnum oplus are often call high bush cranberry, no relation though.
Speaking of beautyberries, does anyone know if C. americana exclusively requires cross pollination for good fruit set, or is it possible for isolated specimens to bear well? They’re not native this far west (I’m in Washington) and so I’m wondering if it would even be worth trying to plant one unless I plant more than one…
I remain unconvinced Aronia is edible. Even the birds and squirrels don’t like it. The people who rave about it and then say it is delicious diluted 40:1 with apple juice aren’t helping. Shoes are not bad diluted that much!
My blueberries failed me as an ornamental edible, because they are so tasty and I have to net them to get any fruit. So they are ornamental or edible and excellent at either, but not at the same time. Though I have bought the neighbors goodwill for the nets by sharing the berries.
Peaches oddly enough have worked out great because the neighbors are all fascinated. I’ll introduce myself to people and they’ll be like “you’re the guy with the peaches!” The trees themselves are ugly and misshapen and diseased but they don’t see that – they just see orange baubles.
Not all fruit must be (or is typically) eaten fresh. You can make a very nice pure aronia jam - I also cut it 1:1 with blackberries or 1:1:1, the 3rd ingredient being prunes or apples because I want MORE of it. I only have 5 aronia bushes and we eat a portion of the harvest raw in autumn (they do get sweeter with cold). I don’t know if varieties differer in sugar content , but I grow Nero. Incidentally, I can’t leave mine on the bushes until frost, because our birds eat them.
The same (cooking before eating) goes for mountain ash and elderberry, although some MA hybrids are sweet enough to eat raw.
While I can’t give be 100% certain, we have beautyberry all over the yard here, and regardless how far they are from each other, they always set fruit. I also haven’t seen anywhere that says they aren’t self-pollinating. I’ve never seen flowers not set berries either.
You need alot of berries if you want to eat them. They don’t have a taste fresh, but make an excellent syrup (probably the best glaze I’ve ever had on a steak). You need a couple cups to make stuff with them. Not impossible from one plant, but you would have to let it get massive (I have a couple over 8ft tall and probably take up at the same in diameter). It would be better to just get two, the fruit set will be better and you don’t have to let it get out of control to get good harvests. You can grow them really close together as well.
I’m guessing part of the problem is that I haven’t the foggiest idea when to pick them. Mine seem to go straight from hard balls that look ripe but taste like used coffee grounds to desiccated raisins that taste like compost. I was sort of expecting them to taste like they had potential but needed sugar, like raw cranberries or unsweetened chocolate. Maybe @Tana can teach me something.
Or maybe my variety just isn’t good. The birds don’t eat them until they have run out of rocks, which seems to be the opposite of your experience.
.jpg){kind=link}