An easily grown plant, it succeeds in most fertile soils, preferring a moisture retentive well-drained loamy soil. Grows well in heavy clay soils. Prefers a sunny position but succeeds in partial shade, though it fruits less well in such a situation. Plants usually produce seed apomictically (a method that does not involve sexual fusion, so the seedlings are clones of the parent) and therefore they breed true to type. A very ornamental plant. The flowers are sweetly scented. The fruit is a good wildlife food source, especially for birds. Plants in this genus are notably susceptible to honey fungus.

Fruit - raw or cooked. Up to 1 cm in diameter, it has a sour taste. The leaves are a tea substitute. Palatable and thirst quenching, it is much used in China and leaves are exported from Shasi for this purpose.

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe in the autumn in a cold frame. It usually germinates in late winter. Stored seed requires stratification for 3 months at 1°c and should be sown in a cold frame as soon as it is received. It might not germinate for 12 months or more. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots as soon as they are large enough to handle. If given a rich compost they usually grow away quickly and can be large enough to plant out in late summer, though consider giving them some protection from the cold in their first winter. Otherwise, keep them in pots in a cold frame and plant them out in late spring of the following year. Cuttings of mature wood, November in a frame.

Mixed forests, slopes and valley thickets from sea level to 2900 metres.