Sorbus aucuparia
Rowan
Common names: Mountain ash, European rowan
At a glance
- Light
- Partial shade
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −35 °C
- Pruning
- Feb–Mar
- Harvest
- Aug–Sep
- Spacing
- 400 cm, rows 500 cm
- Water need
- Medium
- Origin
- Native to Germany
Photo: Eeno11 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
Description
The rowan is a small, extremely winter-hardy tree that bears white corymbs of flowers in May and bright orange-red fruit corymbs from August. The fruits of the wild form are raw herb-bitter; cooked and de-bittered they produce a fine sour jelly for wild game and cheese, and the Edulis variety is even mild enough for direct processing. Above all, the tree is an invaluable food source for more than sixty bird species.
Care instructions
Plant the rowan in autumn, October week 42, in a sunny to partially shaded spot. It is low maintenance, frost hardy up to high mountains, and tolerates even harsh conditions. It requires little care. Harvest the corymbs in August to September when the berries are fully colored, and de-bitter them by cooking or a short frost before processing.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestAug–Sep
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, loamy, humus-rich, well-drained, lean
The rowan is extremely undemanding and grows on almost any soil, from lean sand to humus-rich loam, as long as no standing water forms and the soil stays loose; it reacts sensitively to compaction. It tolerates acidic to slightly alkaline conditions (pH about 4.5 to 7.5); only on strongly chalky soil above pH 7.5 is there a risk of iron-deficiency chlorosis.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
You do not usually need to fertilise established trees on normal garden soil. Only in the first years in place or on very lean soils does mature compost help in spring, worked in shallowly into the root zone; on barren sand you can add horn shavings as well.
Pruning
Your rowan needs hardly any pruning: thin it out lightly in late winter (February to March) if necessary and remove old, diseased or overcrowded shoots right down to the base. An annual cut is not necessary. Without leaves, you can see the crown best.
Overwintering
The rowan is fully hardy and needs no winter protection in the lowlands of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Established trees survive even severe frosts without any measures. Water freshly planted young trees occasionally on frost-free days in their first winter so that the roots do not dry out.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
- Cuttings
- Grafting
Sowing is the classic method for the wild form, which comes true from seed. Collect the ripe berries in autumn, remove the flesh by crushing them and wash the seeds clean. The seeds need cold stratification: mix them with slightly moist sand or seed compost and store them in the fridge for 3 to 4 months. Alternatively, sow them directly in autumn about 1 cm deep outdoors, where they overwinter naturally. From late winter / early spring you can lay stratified seeds out in seed trays, cover them only lightly with soil and keep them bright and warm. Germination takes place after a few weeks, but can also drag on over several months up to 2 to 3 years. Young plants grow quickly and can go to their final position after the first summer.
Cuttings work best as soft to semi-ripe shoots: soft shoots from young new growth in early summer, semi-ripe ones in late summer. Cut side shoots 6 to 15 cm long, remove the lower leaves and put them in a mix of sand and seed compost. Keep the soil evenly moist and ensure high humidity, for example under a plastic bag or cloche in a bright place that is not in full sun. Rooting occurs after several weeks. This method is considerably more demanding than sowing: shoots from young, vigorously growing mother plants root well, while cuttings from old trees often take poorly. Expect uneven success.
Grafting is essential if you want to propagate a particular cultivar (e.g. ‘Edulis’ or ‘Fastigiata’) true to type, since seeds do not come true. Seedling-raised rowans (Sorbus aucuparia) serve as rootstock. Budding (bud grafting) is done in summer, while the rootstock is in sap and the bark lifts easily; whip-and-tongue / crown grafting is done from late winter to early spring, shortly before growth starts. Make sure the cambium layers of rootstock and scion line up on at least one side. This method takes practice and is often left to nurseries.
Root suckers: older specimens occasionally send up suckers, which you can dig out in spring with a good piece of root and replant. Use these opportunistically when they appear, but do not plan on them.
Companion planting
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
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