The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran the above article on December 6, 2024, and again in the December 7 digital edition. It praises its attributes and lists some of the varieties available.
“Winters were brutal throughout most of New England in Colonial America. It snowed a lot, often into spring, and there were no radiators (or antibiotics). Many settlers didn’t survive the season, but because the ground was frozen solid, the colonists couldn’t bury their dead in real time. Funerals had to wait until the spring thaw.
Plants, however, don’t follow calendars. They grow, bloom, fruit and go dormant on their own schedules, dictated by the weather. The settlers knew this, so they watched one specific tree — Amelanchier — for cues: When its white flowers were in bloom, it meant the soil was soft enough to dig graves.
Preachers then went from settlement to settlement to perform funeral services, earning the harbinger tree its common name: serviceberry. Or so the story goes.”