Few small trees carry as many names. Serviceberry, shadbush, juneberry, sarvis: each one records a piece of folk calendar. The shad ran up the rivers when the flowers opened, the berries ripened in June, and in the southern mountains the white bloom was said to mark the week the ground had thawed enough for the circuit preacher to come through and hold the services that winter had postponed.

The garden case is simpler. Serviceberries flower white and early, before the leaves, on a light open frame that suits a small yard or a woodland edge; the fruit that follows is sweet, genuinely good to eat, and stripped by birds within days; and the fall color runs orange to red on a plant that never gets too big. Amelanchier canadensis and the low Amelanchier obovalis are Eastern natives, while Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance' is the selection grown for reliable color and a clean multi-stemmed shape. Give them sun to part shade and ordinary well-drained soil.