«Anthony Waterer» - Japanese meadowsweet Seeds / Spiraea japonica

Our only native species is this attractive, medium-sized shrub with pendulous racemes of small, pale yellow flowers (with unusual, sensitive stamens) followed by bright red, translucent berries. These are edible and make an excellent jelly.

Elderberry is known for its fragrant, flat topped, cream flowers that are followed by abundant, edible purple-black berries in September. The flowers are hermaphrodite. The shrub is attractor of beneficial insects and hummingbirds.

A. melanocarpa can also be used as an edible fruit crop although the fruit is too astringent to eat raw. The fruit is used instead in baking and to make jams, jellies, syrup, tea, juice, and wine.

Blueberries are expensive at the market, but you can grow your own for relatively very low cost. Fill your yard with rows of the fruit-bearing berry bushes. Highbush Blueberry, which is native to North America.