This is a common question along the Front Range. The Canada red cherry, also known as shubert chokecherry, is often sold as a small tree or a shrub. The natural habit of the Canada red cherry is to be a shrub and that is why it suckers. You can continue to cut the suckers back every time they start to green up, or you can let it grow as a shrub, since this is really what it wants to be. The Canada red cherry grows to be about 15-20 feet tall with a spread of 15-20 feet. It has a pyramidal habit and dense foliage. The new growth is green and changes to reddish purple with clusters of white flowers in the spring, followed by red fruit turning darker with age. The fall leaf color is orange with red tones. Annual growth rate is 12-18 inches per year and the plant tolerates moderate drought.

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