JULY-AUG 2018 – Mark Brand, a professor of horticulture at UConn, recently introduced two new varieties of black chokeberry: Low Scape® Mound (UC165) and Low Scape® Hedger (UC166). Black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) is native to the Eastern U.S. so we can use the term nativar instead of the more generic cultivar. Nativar is a term coined by Dr. Allan Armitage to indicate cultivars and hybrids derived from native plants. There’s a growing interest in using native plants and an increasing demand for improved varieties that perform well in our landscapes. The development process, which used traditional hybridizing techniques, took about 10 years. Both of these varieties flower on old wood…