Tree or shrubtree ornamentalStraightforward

Amelanchier

Amelanchier lamarckii

The tree to recommend when somebody with a small garden asks for one, and the recommendation almost every garden designer makes. White blossom with bronze young leaves in April, edible purple berries in June that the birds take first, and reliable orange-red autumn colour — three seasons from a tree that stops around six metres.

Position: Full sun or Partial shade
Water: moderate demand
Drainage: Moisture-retentive, Free-draining
Grows to: 400–800 cm × 300–600 cm
Hardiness: H6
Harvest: June and July
Difficulty: Straightforward

Described view

The same amelanchier in April blossom, June fruit, October colour and winter branch structure

August

Nothing to do

No sowing, planting, harvesting or pruning window falls in August.

Amelanchier’s year

Resolved for United Kingdom (general). Every window is stored against a climate event rather than a date, so a late frost pocket runs later than the band shows. What else August calls for.

Activity	J	F	M	A	J	J	N	D
Plant	January.	February.	March.				November.	December.
In flower				April.
Harvest					June.	July.
Prune	January.						November.	December.

Timing that travels

The band above resolves this plant's windows into months for one region. These are the windows themselves, stored against a climate event rather than a date — which is the form that survives being carried to a colder garden, a frost pocket, or next year.

Conditions it needs

Light: Full sun, Partial shade
Frost: Very hardy
Hardiness rating: H6 (RHS)
Grows best at: 8–25 °C
Soil: Loam, Sandy, Clay
Soil pH: 5–7
Drainage: Moisture-retentive, Free-draining
Water needs: moderate
Drought: moderate tolerance
Waterlogging: moderate tolerance
Heat: good tolerance
Wind and exposure: good tolerance

Where these figures come from

LightSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier — position
Checked 2026-08-13
FrostSourced guidancehigh confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier — hardiness
Checked 2026-08-13
Hardiness ratingSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: RHS hardiness ratings
Checked 2026-08-13
Grows best atSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier — temperature
Checked 2026-08-13
SoilSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier — soil
Checked 2026-08-13
Soil pHSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Plant Finder — Missouri Botanical Garden: Amelanchier lamarckii — culture
Checked 2026-08-13
DrainageSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier — soil
Checked 2026-08-13
Water needsHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
DroughtHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
WaterloggingHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
HeatHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Wind and exposureHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13

On your soil

Computed by comparing this plant's recorded requirements against each soil's recorded characteristics. A recorded horticultural fact overrides the comparison where GrowingHQ holds one.

Soil	Verdict	Why
Heavy clay	Works, with one condition	Amelanchier will crop on heavy clay, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. A plant that stays in the ground through winter with its roots in cold, saturated soil rots — which is what kills most of what fails on heavy ground, rather than the cold.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse.
Sandy	Prefers this soil	Sandy suits Amelanchier as it stands: The pH suits it: it wants 5 to 7, and this soil is in that range. The free drainage is exactly what it wants. Sandy soil is among the soils it is recorded as suiting.
Chalky and alkaline	Works, with one condition	Amelanchier will crop on chalky and alkaline, but one thing has to be dealt with first. The soil is substantially too alkaline for it: it wants pH 5 to 7, and this soil sits around 7.8 to 8.5.The pH is the obstacle. Small shifts are achievable and slow; large ones are not. On chalky and alkaline the dependable answer is a container of the right compost rather than an attempt to change the ground.
Loam	Prefers this soil	Loam suits Amelanchier as it stands: The pH suits it: it wants 5 to 7, and this soil is in that range. The free drainage is exactly what it wants. Loam is among the soils it is recorded as suiting. The soil holds moisture, which saves a great deal of watering.
Silty	Prefers this soil	Silty suits Amelanchier as it stands: The pH suits it: it wants 5 to 7, and this soil is in that range. The free drainage is exactly what it wants. The soil holds moisture, which saves a great deal of watering.
Peaty and acid	Works, with one condition	Amelanchier will crop on peaty and acid, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. A plant that stays in the ground through winter with its roots in cold, saturated soil rots — which is what kills most of what fails on heavy ground, rather than the cold.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse.
Shallow over rock	Prefers this soil	Shallow over rock suits Amelanchier as it stands: The free drainage is exactly what it wants. Loam is among the soils it is recorded as suiting.
Made ground and urban soil	Works, with one condition	Amelanchier will crop on made ground and urban soil, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. A plant that stays in the ground through winter with its roots in cold, saturated soil rots — which is what kills most of what fails on heavy ground, rather than the cold.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse.

Not sure which you have? Four hand tests will settle it.

Space and spacing

Mature height: 400–800 cm
Mature spread: 300–600 cm
Rooting depth: 100 cm
Spacing: 400–600 cm apart

Where these figures come from

Mature heightHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Mature spreadHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Rooting depthHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
SpacingSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier — spacing
Checked 2026-08-13

Measured centre to centre. Plants set closer than this compete for light and water long before they look crowded, and the crowding cannot be undone once they are in.

Habit and ultimate size

What the plant becomes, rather than what it is when you buy it. The gap between the two is where most planting mistakes live.

Foliage: Deciduous
In a container: Container-grown while young, then needs the ground

Where these figures come from

FoliageSourced guidancehigh confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier lamarckii — foliage
Checked 2026-08-13
In a containerHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13

Growth rate: Moderate — roughly 30–60 cm a year
Ultimate height: 400–800 cm
Ultimate spread: 300–600 cm
Time to reach it: 20–30 yearsSourced guidance

Where these figures come from

Growth rateSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier lamarckii — growth rate
Checked 2026-08-13
Ultimate heightSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier lamarckii — ultimate height
Checked 2026-08-13
Ultimate spreadSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier lamarckii — ultimate spread
Checked 2026-08-13
Time to reach itSourced guidancelow confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier lamarckii — time to ultimate size
Checked 2026-08-13

Root space. Modest and well-behaved for a tree, which is much of why it is the standard small-garden recommendation. It dislikes thin soil over chalk more than it dislikes a restricted root run.

source

Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

Cutting it back. Needs none, and resents being shaped. The naturally light multi-stemmed outline is the plant; a lollipop-pruned amelanchier is a spoiled one.

source

Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

No external citation — see the evidence type above.

Checked 2026-08-13

Where and how you can grow it

Each way of growing is assessed separately, and “not assessed” is a real answer rather than a gap we have filled in with a guess.

Method	Suitability	What it needs
Open ground	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13
Traditional dug bed	Workable source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13
Raised bed	Marginal source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13	A raised bed rarely holds enough soil volume for a tree beyond its first few years.
Container	Marginal source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13

Growing it

PlantingAvoid thin soil over chalk, which is the one situation it genuinely dislikes — the leaves yellow between the veins and the tree never thrives. On neutral to slightly acid ground it is untroubled by anything.
PruningLeave it alone. Amelanchier makes a naturally elegant multi-stemmed or lightly branched shape, and the commonest way to spoil one is to prune it into a lollipop. Remove crossing or damaged wood in winter and nothing else.

Where this guidance comes from

PlantingSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier — soil
Checked 2026-08-13
PruningSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Amelanchier — pruning
Checked 2026-08-13

The bud you cut to becomes the new shoot, and it grows in the direction it points — which is why an outward-facing bud opens the plant up and an inward-facing one crosses the middle.

Sources for this page

GrowingHQ editorial synthesis · Plant Finder · Royal Horticultural Society

Each figure on this page carries its own citation, under the “where these figures come from” note in its section. Record last reviewed 2026-08-14.