Chinese Mountain Ash

Sorbus hupehensis Trees - Large Standards - Delivered by Mail Order from the Nursery with a 1 Year Guarantee

Sorbus hupehensis, Chinese Mountain Ash, is a variety of Rowan with excellent autumn colour and white berries.
Sorbus hupehensis trees can reach a height of about 10 metres.
Standard trees are the largest size that we deliver; you can also buy native Mountain Ash saplings here.
Browse all of our other varieties of Rowan / Mountain Ash trees for sale.

How Standard Trees are Measured:
All the plants in the ornamental trees section are graded as standards, which means that they are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level (basically, their trunk's waist measurement). They aren't measured by their height, which will vary. So, a 6/8 standard has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8 centimetres and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10 centimetres around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
Standard trees are 2 - 3.5 metres tall (on average) when they arrive; they are the most mature trees that you can buy from us. We cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.

General description of Sorbus hupehensis trees:
Sorbus hupehensis can be distinguished from native Rowans by its leaves. These have the typical pinnate form of any Rowan but each opposing leaflet is oval, rather than pointed, has small serrations on the end and is deep green with a slightly blue tone.
Abundant corymbs of simple, small white flowers appear in June and are made more vivid when viewed from a distance by their background of dark leaves. While it is pretty during summer, Chinese Mountain Ash's moment of glory comes in autumn, when the leaves drop their sombre disguise and burst into lucid red flames. By that time, the little flowers have matured into white berries that are often washed with a splash of pale pink. The fruit only becomes tasty to birds after they have been chilled a few times by frost, which means that they will stick around long after all the leaves have fallen - the bare tree, hung with delicate bunches of rosy pearls is a beautiful and exotic sight.

Although Chinese Rowan is very vigorous, it has an upright, almost column-shaped canopy.

History & uses of Chinese Mountain Ash:
This tree has won a couple of awards from the RHS, including one for outstanding excellence on display - we would bet that the prize was given during autumn. Unlike the berries of other types of mountain ash, these berries aren't good for humans to eat - something that hungry birds in winter are sure to be grateful for. We have the adventurous Ernest "Chinese" Wilson to thank for bringing this Rowan (along with so many other plants) to Britain at the turn of the last century. In this case, he found it in Hubei province (spelt Hupeh in his day) in central China.