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There are over 100 scientifically described species of rowan in the world. The dense crown of most of these trees and shrubs is richly decorated with bright clusters of red, and less often black, fruits from early autumn to late winter. However, white rowan is also found. It is presented in only a few varieties, the most famous of which are the Kene and Kashmir species, as well as the White Swan, a hybrid of the common rowan. However, these plants are a real boon for the landscape designer.
In order to grow white-fruited rowan in your garden, you should know the characteristics of its types and varieties, in what conditions they prefer to grow and what kind of care they require. And then a bright unusual tree, strewn with white berries against a background of greenery or purple foliage, will become a spectacular decoration for any decorative planting.
Rowan with white berries - an unusual garden decoration
Is there white rowan
Rowan with white berries is a plant that is not often found in Russia, but it is not a legend.It exists in the wild, hiding under the canopy of mountain pine forests, for example, the Kene rowan, discovered by scientists in the warm climate of Central China, or the Kashmir rowan, common in the Western Himalayas. There are also white-fruited varieties that arose as a result of the focused work of breeders. By crossing an ordinary rowan with a bicolor one, they got a new hybrid - Arnold's rowan, which has many interesting variations with fruits of different colors. Among them is the decorative variety White Swan, whose large berries resemble snow in color.
Types and varieties of white rowan
The types and varieties of white rowan listed above are morphologically somewhat different from each other. In this regard, each of them should be characterized separately.
Rowan Kene
Externally, the white mountain ash Kene is a bit reminiscent of its ordinary “relative”, but smaller and more graceful in appearance. In natural habitats, its height can reach 3 m, but in the climate of central Russia it rarely grows above 2 m.
White-fruited rowan Kene - a species plant native to China
White rowan Kene can be a large shrub or a small tree. In cold conditions, a plant can develop 2-3 trunks at the same time, but most often there is only one – straight and smooth, covered with reddish-brown bark with small light “lentils”. The crown of the Kene mountain ash is openwork and wide, up to 4 m in diameter.
The leaves are long (from 10 to 25 cm), imparipinnate, consisting of 17-33 small elongated leaflets with jagged edges. Most of them are concentrated at the top of the plant.
White rowan Kene blooms for 10-12 days in late spring or early summer. The flowers are small, white, collected in loose corymbose inflorescences up to 12 cm in diameter.
At the end of summer, the fruits ripen - the size of a pea (0.7 cm), milky white in color on red stalks, looking very impressive against the background of green and then crimson foliage. White rowan Kene bears fruit every year. The berries are edible, not bitter, but very sour in taste. True, in the Russian climate it is possible to collect only a glass or two of white fruits during the season. This plant is valued mainly for its decorative qualities.
Brief information about the white rowan Kena is in the video:
White mountain ash Kashmir
Cashmere rowan is more winter-hardy than Kene. In Russia, it can grow in the Central and Northwestern regions, up to the Leningrad region, although in severe winters, annual growths can often freeze.
In its homeland in the Himalayas, Kashmir rowan can grow up to 10 m in height. In domestic plantings, it usually grows only to 4-5 m over the course of 20 years. The diameter of its crown is about 3 m, the shape is pyramidal.
The bark of the plant is smooth, gray or reddish-gray. The complex alternate leaves of white Kashmir rowan reach 15-23 cm in length, usually consisting of 17-19 leaflets. Their upper part is dark green, the lower part is lighter in color. In autumn, the leaves turn yellow, turning reddish-brown and orange.
The flowers reach 1 cm in diameter, they are white and pink in color and are grouped into large umbrellas. The flowering period of the Kashmiri rowan is between May and June.
The fruits are large, 1-1.2 cm in diameter (according to British nurseries - up to 1.4 cm), juicy, numerous. According to most sources, they are inedible due to their sour, bitter taste.Their color is usually waxy white, although sometimes it can be golden. Ripen in September-October.
Kashmiri mountain ash is a species that grows on the slopes of the Himalayas
Rowan White Swan
Arnold's rowan variety White Swan is a straight-trunked tree up to 7 m tall with a compact narrow conical crown (1-2.5 m wide). Feels good in the climate of the Moscow region.
The leaves are 7-12 cm long, compound, alternate, slightly concave downwards. Each of them combines from 9 to 17 oval leaves with a pointed top and slightly serrated edge. Their color is dark green in summer and red-orange in autumn.
The flowers are white, united in inflorescences with a diameter of 7-12 cm. The White Swan blooms profusely at the end of May.
The fruits are white with a red stalk, spherical, 0.8-1 cm in diameter, grouped in small clusters. They ripen in early autumn and remain on the branches for a long time. Inedible because they taste very bitter.
White Swan - Arnold's hybrid rowan variety
Advantages and disadvantages
The main advantages and weaknesses of the described types and varieties of white rowan can be presented in the form of a table:
Type/variety of white rowan | Advantages | Flaws |
Kene | Decorative appearance | Sour, tasteless fruits |
Small plant size | Few harvest | |
Drought resistance | Relatively weak winter hardiness (only up to -23 ° C), in severe winters it can freeze | |
Undemanding to soil fertility |
| |
Tolerates urban microclimate well |
| |
Kashmiri | Decorative in autumn, winter and spring, especially during the fruiting period | Does not tolerate excessive soil compaction |
Does not require special care | Reacts poorly to excess moisture | |
Relatively high winter hardiness | In severe frosts, annual shoots may freeze | |
Resistance to diseases and pests | The fruits are inedible | |
Hybrid variety White Swan | Highly decorative, suitable for both single and group plantings | Does not tolerate moisture stagnation well |
Winter hardiness is high (up to - 29 ° C) | The fruits are inedible | |
| Does not tolerate gas pollution and smoke in the air | |
| Light-loving, weakly blooms and bears fruit in the shade |
Application in landscape design
Rowan with white fruits is grown primarily because of its high decorative qualities.
It is used in landscape design:
- as a “solo” plant in a single planting;
- for creating alleys, large and small plant groups;
- in combination with other types and varieties of rowan with red and yellow fruits;
- in compositions with coniferous and deciduous trees, bushes of viburnum, spirea, barberry, honeysuckle, wrinkled rose;
- as a background for flowering herbaceous perennials;
- in the background in flower mixborders in the company of hosta, saxifrage, fescue, bergenia, tenacious.
The clusters look incredibly beautiful in the fall against the backdrop of crimson foliage.
Features of reproduction
Species white rowan (Kashmir, Kene) is usually grown from seeds. They are collected in the fall and sown before winter after stratification.
Varietal trees are propagated as follows:
- green cuttings (early summer);
- budding with a “dormant bud” (in summer);
- cuttings (autumn, winter).
In the cold season, the usual grafting of white rowan varietal material onto Finnish or common rowan seedlings is also performed. The powerful root system of species used as a rootstock will help varietal plants more easily tolerate unfavorable conditions - drought, heat.
Planting white rowan
The rules for planting and caring for white rowan are in many ways similar to those developed for the most common varieties of rowan. This plant is unpretentious, but there are some requirements, compliance with which is highly desirable for the tree to grow healthy and beautiful.
Recommended timing
Young white rowan trees can be planted on the site in the fall (September-October) or early spring (preferably no later than April). If the seedling is prepared with a clod of earth, the season does not really matter. However, in the case of planting a bare-rooted plant in the ground, it is best to do this in the fall, during the leafless period - then there is a greater chance that the white rowan will take root well.
Choosing a suitable location
The place in the garden most suitable for white rowan should have the following characteristics:
- sunny and dry, preferably at a slight elevation (best in the upper third of the southern or western slope of the hill);
- protected from drafts and strong gusts of wind;
- well-drained soil that does not allow dampness and stagnation of water.
White rowan is not particularly demanding on the composition of the soil. However, on fertile soil, ideally medium or light loam, it grows better, blooms and bears fruit more abundantly.
White rowan is unpretentious, but loves sunlight and fertile soil
Selection and preparation of planting material
Two-year-old white rowan seedlings are best suited for planting. When choosing planting material, you should pay attention to the following points:
- the root system of the plant should be healthy and not look weathered and dried out;
- good developed roots have at least 2-3 large branches more than 20 cm long;
- The bark of a healthy plant is not wrinkled, but smooth, without cracks or damaged areas.
Before planting, the white rowan seedling is carefully inspected, broken and damaged shoots and roots are removed. If the plant is planted in the fall, then carefully remove the leaves from the branches, while trying not to damage the buds located in the leaf axils.
Landing algorithm
First of all, you should prepare a planting hole for white rowan:
- it is dug in the shape of a square with a side of 60-80 cm, and the depth is approximately the same;
- fill the pit 1/3 with a mixture of peat compost, humus and topsoil, to which 200 g of superphosphate, a handful of ash and 2-3 shovels of rotted manure are added;
- fill the top with ordinary soil up to half the volume;
- pour a bucket of water into the hole and let it soak completely.
Next, the plant is planted:
- a white rowan seedling is removed from the container (if the roots are open, they are dipped in a mash of clay and water);
- install it in the center of the hole and carefully fill the remaining space with soil;
- compact the soil well in the tree trunk circle;
- watering white rowan;
- mulch the soil at the roots with peat, sawdust, hay, and straw in a layer of 5-7 cm.
Proper planting of white rowan is the key to the health of the tree
Aftercare
Caring for white rowan in the garden is simple:
- During dry periods it is watered. The calculation of water for 1 plant is approximately 2-3 buckets. It is advisable to water in grooves dug around the perimeter of the tree trunk.
- Several times during the season, you should shallowly (no more than 5 cm) loosen the soil under the white mountain ash, while simultaneously getting rid of weeds. This is usually done the day after watering or rain. After loosening the soil, mulch with organic matter.
- Systemic fertilizing is recommended from the third year of rowan life. They increase its productivity. Nitrogen fertilizers - ammonium nitrate, mullein, urea - are applied to the soil in the spring; complex ones, for example, nitroammofoska - in the fall.
- Sanitary pruning is done in early spring and autumn in preparation for winter. During this period, shrunken, diseased branches and branches growing deep into the crown are removed, the longest shoots are shortened to the upper bud. The crown of an adult plant must be thinned. To form an umbrella-shaped crown (in particular, in the Quene mountain ash), the shoots that form in the middle of the trunk from time to time become blind at the very beginning of growth.
- If white rowan was planted before winter, be sure to cover its tree trunk with earth. Before the onset of frost, the trunk is insulated with dry wood foliage, coniferous spruce branches, and dense agrofibre. In winter with little snow, it is worth additionally covering the plant with snow.
- If necessary, a fence made of fine-mesh metal mesh or special pesticides scattered in the circle around the trunk will help protect the trunk of a young tree from rodents.
Diseases and pests
Types and varieties of white rowan are actually quite resistant to diseases and pests. Among the diseases and insects that can affect it are:
Name of disease/pest | Signs of defeat | Treatment and prevention measures |
Rust | Yellow round spots appear on the leaves, and on the underside - red-colored pustules with fungal spore powder | Pruning diseased shoots. Khom, Abiga Peak |
Phylocystic spot | Ash-gray spots with a wide brown border on leaf blades, premature yellowing and drying out of the green mass | Bordeaux mixture (1%), Hom, Abiga Peak |
Septoria (white spot) | Multiple white spots with a dark border on both sides of the leaf | |
Black necrosis | The bark of the white rowan tree cracks, curls upward, lags behind and falls off in sections, exposing the trunk | Pruning and destroying diseased branches. Skor, Fundazol |
Green apple aphid | Leaves and petioles curl, shoots bend | Aktellik, Karate, Decis |
Rowan gall mite | Green, then brown, numerous tubercles-galls on the leaves | Burning of litter. Colloidal sulfur |
Rowan moth | Premature ripening, rotting and falling of berries | Destruction of fallen leaves and berries, loosening the soil under white rowan. Aktellik |
Conclusion
White rowan is a bright, unusual ornamental plant that can decorate any garden. Its berries are usually inedible or tasteless, but this tree or shrub is not grown for the purpose of eating the crop. White rowan looks great in many landscape compositions - both planted alone and in combination with other trees, shrubs, and flowers. Clusters of white berries that appear in the fall usually remain on the branches all winter, allowing the plant to remain decorative almost all year, always attracting admiring glances.
