Ep. 24 Serviceberry vs. Haskap

Two fantastic fruiting shrubs for northern climates

Author

Plants Always Win
May 29, 2025

We’re berry excited for this extra delicious plant face-off.

A thumbnail for Plants Always Win Podcast episode 24: Serviceberry vs. Haskap

In this week’s shrub showdown, our hosts go head to head with serviceberries and haskaps. Sean represents the former, a member of the Amelanchier genus also known as saskatoons, juneberries, and shadbushes, among other names. With cocky confidence of a guaranteed win, he extols their hardiness (down to zone 1!), their robust hybridization, and their independence when it comes to fertilization. Who needs a pollenizer? Not serviceberry! Sometimes they don’t even need pollinators. With tangents into breeding seedless fruits and food-as-medicine research, we savour serviceberry’s taste, versatility, abundance, ecosystem benefits, and ability to thrive across North America.

Erin swings in second with haskaps, a relatively new fruit on the commercial block. She tells us about breeding programs in near-polar regions around the world that are crossing varieties from Canada, Russia, and Japan for taste and resilience. While haskaps do need pollenizers to set fruit, Erin argues for their ease of care, their long lives, and their bountiful all-at-once harvests. The conversation delves into humane ways of bird-proofing berry crops, the perils of “superfood” marketing, and the fragility of fruit trees that bloom too soon. Haskap blossoms, by the way, can survive a -7 C frost. 

Who made you want to grow their berry of choice in your own garden? Vote for your favourite by tagging us on social media and using the hashtag #PAWFaceOff.

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Credits

Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin

Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays
License code: GWOIMMBAS15FG6PH

Citations

Serviceberry Species in Ontario
Muma, W. (n.d.). Serviceberries Group. Ontario Trees and Shrubs. https://ontariotrees.com/main/group.php?id=81

The Downy Serviceberry Tree
Tree Canada, Arbres Canada. (2017, August 6). Downy serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) - Tree Canada. Tree Canada. https://treecanada.ca/resources/trees-of-canada/downy-serviceberry-amelanchier-arborea/ 

The cultivar “Altaglow”, a dwarf Saskatoon, is hardy to zone 1
Mahr, S. (n.d.). Serviceberry, Amelanchier spp. Wisconsin Horticulture. https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/serviceberry-amelanchier-spp/ 

Serviceberry phytochemical research
Donno, D., Cerutti, A., Mellano, M., Prgomet, Z., & Beccaro, G. (2016). Serviceberry, a berry fruit with growing interest of industry: Physicochemical and quali-quantitative health-related compound characterisation. Journal of Functional Foods, 26, 157–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2016.07.014

Haskap resilience
Camerise Québec. (2025, January 21). Grow haskap - Camerise Québec. https://camerisequebec.com/en/grow-haskap/

Growing haskaps in Canada resource from the University of Saskatchewan breeding program
Bors, B. & University of Saskatchewan. (n.d.). Growing haskap in Canada. https://research-groups.usask.ca/fruit/documents/haskap/growinghaskapinCanada.pdf

Antioxidants and Vitamin C in haskaps: Specialty Croppertunities
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. (n.d.-a). Haskap. Specialty Croppertunities. https://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/CropOp/en/spec_fruit/berries/hask.html

Haskap care for home gardeners
Haskaps - Gardening at USASK - College of Agriculture and Bioresources. (n.d.). Gardening. https://gardening.usask.ca/gardening-advice/gardenline-nested-pages/food-plant-pages/fruit/haskap.php

Timestamps

00:12 Introduction 
1:12 What's Growing On: Erin’s Weeding Adventures
1:58 What’s Growing On: Sean’s Woodchips and Natural Wall
06:12 Should Have Asked for a Hoe
09:15 The Plant Face Off: Serviceberries, Sean’s Guaranteed Win?
10:20 A Serviceberry By Any Other Name
13:30 Range and Growing Habits
17:35 Sean’s Ode to the Beauty of the Serviceberry
20:50 Apomixis: This Plant Don’t Need No Man (or Woman)
22:40 Diploids and Polyploids: Making Seedless Plants
26:35 Serviceberry Hardiness Zones
29:30 Serviceberry Pests and Diseases
32:16 When Will Western Medicine Research More Food?
33:59 All Hail Alexis Nikole, AKA Black Forager
36:42 The Plant Face-Off: Haskaps
35:06 Haskap Etymology: Hasukappu, Honeyberry, Lonicera caerulea
38:36 The Endless Loop of Inter-Referential Internet Research
40:27 The Cultivation History of Haskaps
43:10 The University of Saskatchewan Breeding Program
45:00 Using Fruit Tree Pollenizers
49:17 What’s a Haskap Like Anyway? Totally Tubular.
48:53 How to Know Your Haskap Berries are Ripe
50:11 Safe Bird Netting for Berries
51:43 Haskaps Tolerate Cold, Clay, Damp, Disease, and Pests
54:25 Haskap Uses: Food, Medicine and Superfoods
56:45 Plant Care: Growing Haskaps at Home
58:55 Patented Plants
1:02:00 Outro and Contact Us