Mountain Ash hybrid

Wearb

I have a couple of types of Mountain Ash in my garden and they often reseed. Sometimes I allow these to grow (if they are in a suitable place). This year one of them has produced lots of orange berries and I like the look of it.

1. Are hybrids common amongst them?
2. Are they easy to propagate?

3. Are the seeds likely to produce similar trees?


The two that I have in my garden are in the top frames of the pic and the new one in the bottom.

macraignil

Just planted a Sheerwater Seedling variety of mountain ash myself today so just did some reading about the tree. The Wikipedia page lists a number of varieties or cultivars and describes it as a highly variable species. It also has formed hybrids with some close relatives and some breeding efforts have been put into making cultivars that are particularly good for fruit or appearance.
1. Sounds like hybrids are very common.
2. Seeds pass through birds undamaged so it should be able to produce plants through self seeding and this linked page gives details on propagating.
3. I would think that if hybrids are common then there would be no way to guarantee the seeds would produce the same tree and if this is what is required then growing from cuttings or grafting might be a better option.

I found this article interesting as well and it mentions a hybrid between the Mountain Ash and Aronia. I now have both of these in my own garden.

Wearb

macraignil wrote: »

Just planted a Sheerwater Seedling variety of mountain ash myself today so just did some reading about the tree. The Wikipedia page lists a number of varieties or cultivars and describes it as a highly variable species. It also has formed hybrids with some close relatives and some breeding efforts have been put into making cultivars that are particularly good for fruit or appearance.
1. Sounds like hybrids are very common.
2. Seeds pass through birds undamaged so it should be able to produce plants through self seeding and this linked page gives details on propagating.
3. I would think that if hybrids are common then there would be no way to guarantee the seeds would produce the same tree and if this is what is required then growing from cuttings or grafting might be a better option.

I found this article interesting as well and it mentions a hybrid between the Mountain Ash and Aronia. I now have both of these in my own garden.

Thank you so much for that concise and detailed answer. It covers my query perfectly.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Highly unlikely that seeds would hold true. You'd need to graft or plant on suckers to be sure.