Rowan trees

Rowan or Mountain Ash trees are hardy attractive trees, easy to grow in most situations.

• RowanBest seller

  Amber Light

  Sorbus

  

  A typical Mountain Ash or Rowan, with particularly persistent red berries.

  • Fruit colour: Orange
• Rowan

  Asplenifolia

  Sorbus aucuparia

  

  The Cut-leaf Rowan, an excellent form of the native Mountain Ash, orange-red berries, and highly feathered leaves.

  • Fruit colour: Orange / Red
• Rowan

  Autumn Spire®

  Sorbus aucuparia

  Autumn Spire (Flanrock) is a columnar rowan with yellow fruitlets and excellent autumn colour.

  • Fruit colour: Yellow
• Rowan

  Chinese Lace

  Sorbus

  

  A neat attractive Rowan with bright green leaves and dusky pink berries.

  • Fruit colour: Red
• RowanBest seller

  Common Rowan

  Sorbus aucuparia

  

  The Rowan or Mountain Ash, native to most parts of the UK. The leaves turn golden red in autumn, accompanied by clusters of red berries. One of the largest species of Sorbus.

  • Fruit colour: Red
• Rowan

  Copper Kettle

  Sorbus

  

  Named for its attractive light copper-coloured fruitlets, Copper Kettle is easy to grow and takes up little space.

  • Fruit colour: Yellow
  • Fruit colour: Yellow / Orange
• Rowan

  Croft Coral

  Sorbus aucuparia

  

  Croft Coral is a small rowan tree but the fruits are an orange coral colour rather than the usual red,

  • Fruit colour: Orange
• Rowan

  Eastern Promise

  Sorbus

  

  Features feathered leaves, and pink-red fruitlets.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
• Rowan

  Ember Glow

  Sorbus aucuparia

  

  This rowan has bluish-green leaves which turn orange-red in the autumn.The fruitlets are red, and persist well into winter.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
• Rowan

  Emiel

  Sorbus folgneri

  

  Emiel has long leaves, with silvery-green undersides, turning orange in autumn.

  • Fruit colour: Red
• Rowan

  Fingerprint®

  Sorbus aucuparia

  A particularly upright form of the Mountain Ash, and one of the most disease-resistant.

  • Fruit colour: Red
• Rowan

  Gibbsii

  Sorbus hybrida

  

  Gibbsii grows with a neat spreading columnar form, sprinkled with clusters of bright red fruits in the autumn.

  • Fruit colour: Red
• RowanBest seller

  Glendoick SpireTM

  Sorbus aucuparia

  

  A small compact rowan with an upright form, notable for its bright pink fruitlets and feathered leaves.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
• Rowan

  Glendoick White Baby®

  Sorbus

  Glendoick White Baby is a superb tree for autumn colour, with large bright white berries and bright red leaves.

  • Fruit colour: White
• Rowan

  John Bond

  Sorbus hemsleyi

  An unusual species of Sorbus, the leaves are particularly attractive for their white undersides.

  • Fruit colour: Brown
• Rowan

  John Mitchell

  Sorbus x aria

  

  John Mitchell is a popular whitebeam, notable for its large white-green leaves.

  • Fruit colour: Brown
• RowanBest seller

  Joseph Rock

  Sorbus

  

  A small rowan, with distinctive pale yellow fruitlets. Also one of the best for autumn colour.

  • Fruit colour: Yellow
• Rowan

  Kashmir rowan

  Sorbus cashmiriana

  

  An unusual rowan, with light pink blossom, and white fruitlets, which are larger than usual for rowans.

  • Fruit colour: White
• Rowan

  Lemon Drop

  Sorbus folgneri

  Lemon Drop is a small whitebeam tree, with the characteristic white undersides to its leaves. As the name suggests, the fruitlets are bright yellow.

  • Fruit colour: Yellow
• Rowan

  Leonard Messel

  Sorbus

  

  A good all-round small rowan tree, with good autumn colours and cascades of pink fruitlets.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
• In stockRowanBest seller

  Lutescens

  Sorbus aria

  An excellent large garden tree, very hardy, easy to grow, and tolerant of a wide range of soils and conditions. Grey-green leaves turn russet in autumn, with orange berries.

  From £23.95 to £47.95buy

  • Fruit colour: Orange / Red
• Rowan

  Matthew Ridley

  Sorbus

  An upright-growing Mountain Ash with dense white flowers and clusters of orange-red autumn berries.

  • Fruit colour: Yellow / Orange
• RowanBest seller

  Olympic Flame

  Sorbus ulleungensis

  

  An attractive small rowan tree, its orange/red autumn leaf-colours are amongst the best.

  • Fruit colour: Orange / Red
• Rowan

  Pearls

  Sorbus bissetii

  A small spreading rowan tree, named for its clusters of pearl-white berries.

  • Fruit colour: White
• Rowan

  Pink Charm

  Sorbus vilmorinii

  

  A small rowan with a spreading habit, large feathered leaves, and bright pink berries.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
• Rowan

  Pink Ness

  Sorbus

  

  A very upright rowan tree, with pretty pink fruitlets.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
• Rowan

  Pink Pagoda

  Sorbus hupehensis

  

  Pink Pagoda features clusters of pale pink fruits in late summer, and good autumn foliage colours.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
• Rowan

  Pink Pearl

  Sorbus

  

  A small upright rowan tree with clusters of pink-flecked white fruitlets.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
  • Fruit colour: White
• Rowan

  Ravensbill

  Sorbus

  This rowan tree is named for the the black colour of its winter buds. It also features yellow autumn leaves and orange berries.

  • Fruit colour: Orange / Red
• Rowan

  Red Bird

  Sorbus alnifolia

  

  Red Bird features bright white flowers, orange / red fruits and good autumn leaf colours. It has a wider climate range than other rowans.

  • Fruit colour: Orange / Red
• Rowan

  Rose Queen

  Sorbus

  

  An unusual small rowan tree, featuring clusters of dark-pink very persistent berries.

  • Fruit colour: Crimson
• Rowan

  Rosiness

  Sorbus rosea

  

  A small rowan tree with white-pink flowers and cascades of pink berries.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
• Rowan

  Sorbus hedlundii

  Sorbus hedlundii

  A little-known whitebeam species, it features the classic downy grey-green leaves, and russeted fruitlets in autumn.

  • Fruit colour: Brown
• Rowan

  Sorbus helenae

  Sorbus helenae

  

  A species of rowan featuring pink/white fruitlets and good autumn colours.

  • Fruit colour: White
• Rowan

  Sorbus hupehensis

  Sorbus hupehensis

  

  A classic rowan tree with pink berries and good autumn leaf colours.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
• Rowan

  Sorbus japonica

  Sorbus japonica

  An upright rowan with large oval leaves and attractive autumn colours and large red fruitlets.

  • Fruit colour: Red
• Rowan

  Sorbus pseudovilmorinii

  Sorbus pseudovilmorinii

  

  Similar characteristics to Sorbus vilmorinii, not quite as vigorous, but heavier fruiting.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
  • Fruit colour: White
• Rowan

  Sorbus sargentiana

  Sorbus sargentiana

  

  A broad spreading rowan with bright orange fruitlets and autumn foliage.

  • Fruit colour: Orange / Red
• Rowan

  Sorbus scalaris

  Sorbus scalaris

  

  One of the more spreading smaller Rowan species, with orange/red autumn leaf colours, and clusters of small orange fruilets.

  • Fruit colour: Orange / Red
• Rowan

  Sorbus vilmorinii

  Sorbus vilmorinii

  

  The main feature of this Rowan trees is the pink fruitlets, which turn white as autumn progresses. It is one of the smaller Sorbus species, but also one of the more spreading.

  • Fruit colour: Pink
  • Fruit colour: White
• Rowan

  Sorbus wardii

  Sorbus wardii

  

  A little-known Whitebeam from the Himalayas, featuring large silver-green leaves and yellow-orange berries.

  • Fruit colour: Yellow / Orange
• Rowan

  Sunshine

  Sorbus

  

  A small rowan tree with an upright form and golden yellow clusters of fruits, and strong autumn colours.

  • Fruit colour: Yellow / Orange
• Rowan

  Wild Service Tree

  Sorbus torminalis

  A large traditional Rowan tree, native to England.

  • Fruit colour: Brown
• Rowan

  Wisley Gold

  Sorbus

  

  A good-sized yellow-fruiting mountain ash, with a spreading form.

  • Fruit colour: Yellow
  • Fruit colour: Yellow / Orange

How to choose Rowan trees

The Rowans or Mountain Ash trees are a group of mostly small trees growing to about 7m, characterised by their heavily segmented or "pinnate" leaves, which often take on attractive autumn colours. They are also known as Mountain Ash trees, because the leaf has a passing resemblance to the common ash - although they are not related.

They are however distantly related to crab-apples and hawthorns, and most varieties bear clusters of fruitlets which hang on the tree into early winter. The fruits are usually red, but there are also yellow and pink varieties.

All forms of rowan are good sources of food for wildlife from late summer into the early winter.

Rowan trees are related to crab-apples and the berries of many species (especially Sorbus aucuparia) can also be cooked and made into rowan jelly, similar to crab-apple jelly.

Rowans are easy to grow, and most are tolerant of a wide range of conditions, including acidic soils, clay soils, wet soils, and exposed situations. Many will tolerate chalk, however they prefer well-drained neutral or acidic soils if possible.

Rowans flower very late - in May or June - and often set fruit by mid-summer. This makes them particularly well-adapted to northern climates with short damp summers and cold winters.

Rowans can be grown successfully in areas with long warm summers, provided you pay attention to watering (particularly with young trees) as they do not tolerate drought.

They can be planted in most locations, but for the best fruit and leaf colours plant in full sun.

They are invariably healthy trees, although (reflecting their relation with apples) they can be susceptible to fireblight - fortunately not a common disease in the UK. Scab and aphids can also sometimes be a problem.

The growth habit of most varieties is quite upright, making them good street trees.

Most of our Rowan trees are grafted on to Sorbus aucuparia rootstocks, to help give a consistent size and better tolerance to drought. Some are grafted on Sorbus intermedia which is more suitable for the Whitebeam varieties. Although they are usually just planted and allowed to grow naturally, young Sorbus trees can be cut back and shaped and pruned in a similar way to Malus and Prunus.

We also have advice on choosing a rowan tree for your garden based on berry colours and other characteristics.