Aronia

Aronia is completely hardy and needs no winter protection outdoors. Simply leave the shrub standing; it drops its leaves and withstands even severe frost. In February you can cut old, overaged shoots back to ground level; a container you wrap around the pot with fleece and leave outside in a sheltered spot instead of bringing it indoors.

Aronia is propagated most reliably by cuttings. From mid-June to the end of August, cut fresh shoot tips of the current year about 10 to 20 cm long (softwood/semi-ripe stage, the wood still breaks easily when bent). Remove the lower leaves, keep one to two leaves at the top and halve large leaves to reduce evaporation. Insert the cuttings about 4 to 5 cm deep in a free-draining substrate (e.g. a mix of sand and seed compost, or perlite) and keep air and soil humidity constantly high. A transparent lid or a film as a mini greenhouse helps, as does 15 to 20 °C of bottom heat. After about 5 to 8 weeks roots should have formed; then gradually acclimatise to the open air. The success rate is high.

Even simpler is division, or separating root suckers: aronia naturally forms suckers (rhizome shoots) around the mother plant. In spring or autumn, during the plant's dormancy or summer rest, dig up a strong sucker with as much root as possible and separate it from the mother plant with a spade. This method almost always works. Plant the separated shoot directly at the desired spot or first pot it in moist seed compost. Water in well and water regularly in dry spells in the first weeks. Even if the above-ground shoot wilts or dies back a little after moving, the plant usually keeps rooting reliably in the ground.

Sowing is also possible: with the common aronia varieties the seedlings turn out largely like the mother plant, because many forms produce their seeds via apomixis (asexually). Take the seeds from ripe fruits in late summer, wash off the flesh and mix the seeds with moist sand. Stratify the mixture for about 2 to 3 months (at least about 60 days) cool at 3 to 5 °C, for example in the vegetable drawer of the fridge, to break the germination inhibition. Then sow shallowly in spring and keep the substrate evenly moist. After stratification the seeds usually germinate within 10 to 20 days; the young plants can then be grown on like other woody seedlings.