this caterpillar hiding in the chokecherry branches looks exactly like a chokecherry twig. I found it while picking saskatoons, super camouflage

block of black chokecherry, prunus virginiana var melanocarpa grafted over to an assortment of other prunus to trial compatibility, grow out budwood for august budding onto rootstocks, and to produce softwood for rooting. So far this season take was high across every prunus species, and at 6-8 weeks every graft that leafed out continues to grow. Trialing various pruning and interstem interventions to keep as many growing until dormancy as I can, which can them be a reserve of dormant scion wood for next spring. Eventually I’ll have an orchard of mature prunus for a more permanent resource, but chokecherry being common and plentiful here is working well so far. #propagation

branches just hanging to the ground loaded with chokeberries, these are the native prunus virginiana var melanocarpa, the black fruited chokecherry

garrington choke cherry vs wild black fruited chokecherry. the first few photos are garrington, grafted a few years ago. the branches hang heavy with large fruit, fully ripe at the end of July. by contrast the wild chokecherry is smaller and at best a bright red today, they'll ripen to a dark black in another month. the variation is interesting, I'm happy to have started grafting selections around our place onto the wild ones. last up will be a yellow fruited variety, probably boughens or a seedling of it, but those are just green today so I'll wait for photos