Aronia arbutifolia 'Brilliantissima'

Aronia arbutifolia has grown in the wet woods and pocosins of the eastern United States for a very long time, largely unbothered by the horticultural world's attention. 'Brilliantissima' changed that. Selected for foliage with a deeper gloss and berries of a more saturated, almost lacquered red than the straight species, this is the form that finally made gardeners look twice at a native shrub long overlooked despite centuries of quiet usefulness.

The season opens in mid spring with clusters of small white flowers, delicate and lace-like, and welcome to native bees at a moment when little else blooms. By midsummer the berries swell and deepen, and by early autumn ripen to a red so intense as to look almost artificial against the leaves. The foliage turns at the same time: the fall color of 'Brilliantissima' is among the more reliable and spectacular events of the native shrub calendar, a deep, burnished crimson that holds for weeks and earns the cultivar name outright.

The berries persist well into winter, by which point the birds have usually found them; cedar waxwings in particular descend in flocks, either a delight or a caveat depending on attachment to the fruit display. Both views are fair.

Aronia arbutifolia tolerates wet soils, adapts to dry ones once established, and asks very little in return for a great deal of seasonal interest. Native, four-season, wildlife-supporting, and genuinely beautiful, a combination still rarer than it should be. The berries are edible, very astringent fresh but good cooked, and exceptionally high in antioxidants.