Highbush Cranberry vs Thimbleberry - TreeTime.ca

Highbush Cranberry vs Thimbleberry

Viburnum trilobum

Rubus parviflorus

COMING SOON

(new stock expected: fall of 2025)

NOT AVAILABLE THIS SEASON - MIGHT RETURN

Highbush Cranberry
Thimbleberry

Highbush Cranberry produces attractive white flowers in late June and bears edible fruit that matures to a bright red colour in the late summer.

This shrub, native to much of Canada, is fast growing, and its fruit can be eaten raw or cooked into a sauce.

Thimbleberry is an ornamental shrub with large, green maple-like-leaves. Flowers are attractive, fragrant, and turn into red-raspberry-like berries. The berries are good for jams, cakes, breads, muffins etc. If you remove the berry, the core resembles a thimble, giving this shrub its namesake.

Highbush Cranberry Quick Facts

Thimbleberry Quick Facts

Zone: 2a
Zone: 4a
Height: 4 m (13 ft)
Height: 1.5 m (5 ft)
Spread: 2.7 m (9 ft)
Spread: 1.5 m (5 ft)
Light: partial shade, full sun
Light: partial shade, full sun
Moisture: normal
Moisture: any
Growth rate: medium
Growth rate: fast
Life span: medium
Life span: medium
Suckering: none
Suckering: none


Foliage: Soft leaves up to 8 inches across
Flowers: white clusters
Flowers: white, showy
Berries: edible red berries
Berries: edible, red, similar to raspberries
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no

In row spacing: 0.6 m (2.0 ft)

Between row spacing: 5 m (16 ft)
Other Names: american cranberrybush, american cranberrybush viburnum, high bush cranberry, kalyna
Other Names: thimbleberry, western thimbleberry