Cardinal Royal Rowan, Large Trees

Sorbus aucuparia Cardinal Royal: Bareroot Rowan Trees in Standard Sizes

Cardinal Royal is a cultivar of our native Rowan, distinguished mainly by their more erect branches, narrower habit, and tidier overall appearance that is better suited to avenues or small gardens.
In May, the small, white, aromatic flowers emerge from pearl-like buds which develop into big bunches of blood-red berries by mid-August. These have a more vivid colour and noticeably bigger yield than a wild Rowan tree, which will be much appreciated by your neighbourhood birds, or your poultry. You can certainly harvest the fruit to cook for yourself, but Edulis is an even better choice.

All Rowans come into their own around late September with a fantastic display: some leaves stay green while others change from red to rusty ochre to custard yellow. With the rich, rosy berries amongst all of that, these trees are models of autumn colour.

It is vigorous and reaches a modest size of about 10-12 metres (30+ feet) as a standard tree, which is on the tall side for a Rowan, but spreading no more than 6 metres. A half standard will reach approximately 4 metres tall.

Browse all of our other Rowan, Whitebeam & Wild Service trees.

Delivery season: Rowan trees are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-March inclusive.
Choosing a size: Small trees are cheaper, easier to handle and more forgiving of less than ideal aftercare, so they are best for a big planting project. If instant impact is your priority, or if you are only buying a few plants for use in a place where it is convenient to water them well in their first year, then you may as well use bigger ones. All our bareroot trees are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Features:

• Height: 10-12m, tidy, upright habit
• Soil: Any well drained except shallow chalk
• Use: Specimen, small garden, large container, avenue, urban
• Colour: White flowers, vivid red berries
• Bareroot delivery only: November-March
  

Growing Cardinal Royal Rowans

Any well drained soil except shallow chalk. Suitable for large containers designed for trees. Full sun or partial shade. Tolerant of pollution.

The berries are perfectly edible after cooking; they are unpalatable raw, and will probably give you a stomach ache. They are ripe when they part easily from their stem. For the best results, freeze the berries first or, up North, maybe collect them after a frost: this opens up the fruit's tissues, which shortens cooking time and thus helps to preserve their vitamins. The best jelly is made with an equal amount of Rowan berries and crab apples, which are high in pectin.

Please watch our tree planting video for full planting instructions.

Did You Know?

The male Northern Cardinal is a fairly common, bright red bird mainly found in the USA, where this tree was bred at Michigan State University, registration code Michred.

Standard trees are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level: their trunk's waist measurement. Unlike sapling trees and hedge plants, standards aren't measured by their height, which will vary quite a bit both between and within species.
So, a 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8cm and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10cm around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
On average, standard trees are 2-3.5 metres tall when they arrive, but we cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.