Feeds Wildlife

Our use scores are our own 1 to 10 ratings, adapted from the grades S. A. Beach used in The Apples of New York (1905). A 6 is a solid good, and 8 and up are his higher grades, the ones that land on our Best Of lists. The top scorers for feeding wildlife, all at 9 out of 10, are American elderberry, American hazelnut, aspen, buffaloberry, bur oak, chokecherry, hawthorn, huckleberry, persimmon, Rocky Mountain juniper, serviceberry and Trader mulberry. Our shortlist is Best Plants for Wildlife.

Food that lasts into winter is worth a lot to birds. Hawthorn's dark red fruit hangs on all winter for grouse, pheasants and songbirds. Dolores River Sorbet crab (8) holds its fruit into winter, and Viking aronia berries hang on into November here. Peach leaf willow (8) has early catkins that feed bees, and willows host hundreds of moth and butterfly species.

Read the pollination notes before you order. Buffaloberry, Rocky Mountain juniper, aspen, persimmon, peach leaf willow and sea buckthorn plants are male or female, so plant the whole bundle together. American hazelnut needs two genotypes. Trader mulberry fruits without a male.

Most of this group is rated to zone 2 or colder, and aspen and Siberian crabapple go to zone 1. Persimmon (zone 4b) and pawpaw (zone 4) are Montana trials. If deer are a problem, buffaloberry, hawthorn, golden currant and Ponderosa pine are seldom badly damaged, and pawpaw is rarely bothered. More options are on our deer resistant plants page. Planting fruit to feed deer? See our fruit trees for deer and food plots.