Karonsdaylilies
cranberry winter
The highbush cranberry is a native shrub with year-round ornamental value. The common name for this plant describes it as a cranberry, it is actually a member of the botanical family known as Caprifoliaceae, and is more closely related to a honeysuckle, than to the cranberries eaten with the traditional Thanksgiving turkey.
The botanical name for the shrub is Viburnum trilobum, which describes the three-lobed leaves. In June, the shrubs produce flat-topped masses of white flowers, which subsequently give rise to clusters of lustrous red fruit. The flower clusters are a distinctive feature of this plant because each cluster is composed of two different types of flowers. The showy flowers found around the outside of each group are sterile, while the less conspicuous flowers toward the centre of the cluster are fertile. The sterile flowers serve only to attract pollinating insects to the less conspicuous fertile flowers. The fruit clusters ripen in mid-summer. As an added bonus, the fruit clusters remain on the plant through winter where their vivid red colour brightens the landscape and they serve as a food source for a variety of birds and mammals. Deer, moose, foxes, raccoons, chipmunks, squirrels, skunks, mice, rabbits, grouse, pheasants, robins, cedar waxwings and other songbirds all consume the fruit.
Cultivation is simple for the native highbush cranberry. The plants are tolerant of a wide variety of soil types, but do best where the soil is consistently moist and well-drained; they may grow best in soil that is slightly acidic (pH 6.0-6.5). Because the fibrous roots of this shrub lie near the soil surface, cultivation for weeds should be shallow, and the use of a mulch will be beneficial.
Medicinally, preparations of the fruit have been used as an astringent to treat swollen glands. The bark yields a preparation (containing a bitter compound called viburnine) that has been used as an apparently effective antispasmodic for relief of menstrual and stomach cramps, and asthma. European, Native American, and Asians knew of the antispasmodic properties.
cranberry winter
The highbush cranberry is a native shrub with year-round ornamental value. The common name for this plant describes it as a cranberry, it is actually a member of the botanical family known as Caprifoliaceae, and is more closely related to a honeysuckle, than to the cranberries eaten with the traditional Thanksgiving turkey.
The botanical name for the shrub is Viburnum trilobum, which describes the three-lobed leaves. In June, the shrubs produce flat-topped masses of white flowers, which subsequently give rise to clusters of lustrous red fruit. The flower clusters are a distinctive feature of this plant because each cluster is composed of two different types of flowers. The showy flowers found around the outside of each group are sterile, while the less conspicuous flowers toward the centre of the cluster are fertile. The sterile flowers serve only to attract pollinating insects to the less conspicuous fertile flowers. The fruit clusters ripen in mid-summer. As an added bonus, the fruit clusters remain on the plant through winter where their vivid red colour brightens the landscape and they serve as a food source for a variety of birds and mammals. Deer, moose, foxes, raccoons, chipmunks, squirrels, skunks, mice, rabbits, grouse, pheasants, robins, cedar waxwings and other songbirds all consume the fruit.
Cultivation is simple for the native highbush cranberry. The plants are tolerant of a wide variety of soil types, but do best where the soil is consistently moist and well-drained; they may grow best in soil that is slightly acidic (pH 6.0-6.5). Because the fibrous roots of this shrub lie near the soil surface, cultivation for weeds should be shallow, and the use of a mulch will be beneficial.
Medicinally, preparations of the fruit have been used as an astringent to treat swollen glands. The bark yields a preparation (containing a bitter compound called viburnine) that has been used as an apparently effective antispasmodic for relief of menstrual and stomach cramps, and asthma. European, Native American, and Asians knew of the antispasmodic properties.