Aronia melanocarpa Autumn Magic

Aronia melanocarpa 'Autumn Magic' is a beautiful improvement of a North American bush called the black-fruited aronia. More compact, bushier and brilliantly coloured in autumn, this variety offers a charming spring flowering in the form of white and fragrant bouquets that will produce black, shiny and edible fruits whose flavour, superior to that of the wild species, resembles that of blackcurrant. In autumn, it is crowned with orange and red-violet leaves and adorned with generous black fruit clusters hanging from red petioles. The bush is as ornamental as it is easy to grow in ordinary soil, in a sunny position to enhance its colours.

Coming from Canada and the northeastern United States, Aronia macrocarpa belongs to the Rosaceae family and is a distant cousin of roses, plum trees, and blackberries. 'Autumn Magic' has been selected and tested in Canada for its superior ornamental qualities, compact habit, and better-tasting fruits. This beautiful 1.5 m (4.9 ft) all around bush shows rather slow growth, has dense vegetation and smaller leaves than the type. Its bark is smooth and reddish-brown. It bears deciduous, alternate, simple, ovate, finely toothed leaves, 4 cm to 5 cm (1.6 in to 2 in) long, with a satiny dark green colour. In autumn, the leaves burst into flame, adopting various shades of orange, copper, crimson red to violet. In April-May, white flowers spotted with pale pink, 2 cm (0.8 in) in diameter, appear. Gathered in corymbs, they are very numerous, very fragrant and very attractive to bees. They give way to clusters of round fruits, green-purple in colour, which become black-violet and shiny while their peduncles turn red. This edible fruiting is slightly tart but rich in antioxidants, and persists quite long in winter if not consumed by birds.

Hardy and naturally very resistant to diseases and pests, Aronia melanocarpa 'Autumn Magic' is an excellent free hedge bush. While it tolerates the presence of limestone and adapts to poor soils, it will only reach its full potential in cool, deep, slightly acidic soil. It finds its place in isolation, in a free, country or hedgerow hedge, as well as in large shrub beds. To achieve a spectacular effect, plant it in groups of 3 to 6 subjects of the same variety. This ornamental aronia works well in a hedge that is both beautiful and tasty. Plant with other small fruit bushes, foliage or flowering plants such as apple trees, plum trees, and ornamental cherry trees, deciduous viburnums, hedge honeysuckle, witch hazels, Japanese Goumi, anemone trees, May berries, sea buckthorn (Hyppophae rhamnoides), Goji, and blueberries.

The fruits can be consumed fresh, cooked, as jam or as juice mixed, for example, with cranberry juice and apple juice.