Small Ornamental Plants with Edible Fruit

I have a small yard but want to grow a small ornamental plant with edible fruits. Can you recommend any?

One of my favorites is Juneberry also called Serviceberry (Amelanchier). It has attractive gray bark, white flowers in spring and nice fall color. The berries taste like a nutty blueberry and are good eaten fresh form the tree or baked in a pie or muffins. All serviceberry fruit is edible – if you can beat the birds to the harvest. Amelanchier alnifolia and its cultivars Honeywood, Smokey, Northline, Parkwood, Prembina and Theissen produce some of the largest fruit. Amelanchier laevis is another good choice.

Cornelian cherry dogwood has yellow flowers in early spring, peeling bark and red fruit. The fruit can be used in syrups, pies and preserves. You may need to add some sweetener, I think a lot, when using this fruit.

Hardy kiwis are ornamental vines that produce grape size tasty kiwis. Check with your nursery when ordering, many of the hardy kiwis need separate male and female plants to produce fruit.

Consider adding roses with their vitamin C rich hips for teas and jelly or highbush cranberry viburnums to use its tart fruit in baking and preserves.

Don’t forget some of the common fruit plants such as raspberries, elderberries, currants and dwarf apples. Mix these with your ornamental plants to form an attractive edible landscape.

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