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Buffaloberry (Bundle of 5) | Spring 2027
$99.99
Reliable shipping
Flexible returns
Ripening
Will it finish before your first hard freeze?
Check it on the Ripening Map (opens in a new tab)
Disease resistanceNo strong resistance
- 2 Heart rot : Susceptible, 2 of 5
Scored 1 to 5. Higher resists better, and ? means no published data yet.
See it on our berry disease chart (opens in a new tab)At a glance: Buffaloberry is a buffaloberry shrub rated hardy to zone 2 in our ratings (winters to -50°F), and dioecious, with separate male and female plants.
| Also called | Silver buffaloberry, bullberry (Shepherdia argentea) |
|---|---|
| Hardy to | Zone 2 to 9. A bare number means the whole of zone 2, colder half included (winters to -50°F). Find your zone with our cold hardiness calculator. |
| Chill hours | About 800 hours (500 to 1,200). Our estimate. No published figure exists for this variety yet. Montana winters give it plenty. In milder climates, make sure your winters average at least this much. Check your chill hours or see our sources. |
| Pollination | Dioecious - Needs Male and Female. Bloom group 4 of 7 (mid), very early spring here. Buffaloberry plants are either male or female, and only females fruit. Plant all five together so you almost certainly get both sexes. Bloom group is our estimate from the variety's origin and relatives. Pollination Charts. |
| Good for | Feeding wildlife (9/10), jams and jellies (8/10), windbreaks and hedgerows (8/10), soil building (8/10), sauce and butter (7/10), cooking and roasting (6/10). Scores are our own 1 to 10 ratings; 8 and up makes our Best Of lists. |
| Deer | Seldom badly damaged by deer. |
| What you get | Bare root, 2-3 ft. Shipped or picked up in Missoula in spring, roots wrapped in moist sawdust. Guaranteed to bud out. |
Overview
An extremely drought-tolerant and cold-hardy shrub, the fruits have a nice lemony, sweet/tart taste and have recently earned the label of a "superfruit."
Impressive Size in Montana
It reaches around 12–15 feet in Missoula, Kalispell, Billings, and other places we’ve seen it growing across Montana.
Nitrogen-Fixing Bonus
This non-leguminous, nitrogen-fixing shrub is hardy down to Zone 2.
Pollination
Buffaloberry is dioecious, meaning individual plants are either male or female. The USDA plant guide says the flowers are insect pollinated, most commonly by honey bees and bumble bees. Either way, having at least one male nearby as a pollenizer is essential for fruit production, and one male will serve several females.
These plants are grown from seed, which means there is no fixed male-to-female ratio in any given bundle. However, in large populations, seed-grown buffaloberry naturally averages about 50% male and 50% female.
Because the sex of seedlings cannot be determined until they flower, the ratio within a bundle of five is random. Statistically, each seedling has a 50% chance of being male and a 50% chance of being female.
To put the odds in practical terms:
The probability that all five seedlings are female is (0.5)⁵, or 3.125%. The probability that all five are male is the same, 3.125%.
That means the probability that a bundle of five contains at least one male is 96.875%, and the probability it contains at least one of each (a female to fruit and a male to pollenize her) is 93.75%.
In real-world terms, almost every bundle of five will include both a male and a female, making this an effective and practical way to establish a fruiting planting from seedlings.
Summary:
Seedling ratio: roughly 50/50 male–female
Odds your bundle of five includes at least one male: ~97%
Odds it includes both a female and a male: ~94%
Current Plant Size
Plants are currently 2-3 ft tall
Questions we get about Buffaloberry
How cold hardy is Buffaloberry?
We rate Buffaloberry hardy to zone 2, which means winters down to about -50°F. Our ratings come from real winters at our two Montana sites and from trusted growers across the North, not from a catalog average.
How many chill hours does Buffaloberry need?
About 800 hours of winter chill (we count hours at or below 45°F), likely somewhere between 500 and 1,200. Nobody has published a chill figure for it, so that's our estimate from its relatives and origin. A native of cold plains winters. No one has measured its chill need, but anywhere with a real winter should be fine. Our chill hours guide has a calculator for your winters, and our research page lists the sources.
What is Buffaloberry good for?
Our top use scores for Buffaloberry are feeding wildlife (9/10), jams and jellies (8/10), windbreaks and hedgerows (8/10), soil building (8/10). Anything scored 8 or higher makes our Best Of lists.
Is Buffaloberry disease resistant?
No. It's prone to heart rot. Our berry disease resistance chart has every rating, the notes and the sources.
Will deer eat Buffaloberry?
Not badly. Deer may nibble Buffaloberry, but they seldom do real damage.
What arrives, and when does Buffaloberry ship?
A dormant bare-root plant, roots wrapped in moist sawdust with a vapor barrier, shipped or picked up in Missoula in spring. Sizes offered: 2-3 ft. We guarantee our plants bud out. Stone fruits can be slow, so if one still has not budded out by August 15, write to us and we credit you for the following spring.