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The Viburnums in Early Spring

By far my most favorite shrub is the viburnum. I'm working on collecting as many as I can, either through propagation or buying them, to fill in areas around our gardens. If you don't have a viburnum in your garden you really should plant at least one or two. Some are fragrant, some are evergreen, and they are great for wildlife. The berries never last long when they appear in the late summer and early fall.

In the spring time the scent of our Burkwood viburnum 'Mohawk' (Viburnum x burkwoodii 'Mohawk') fills the air. With the perfect weather conditions the one flowering shrub will add its fragrance to the whole backyard.



It's not fragrant but the 'Shasta' viburnum (Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum 'Shasta') gets gorgeous blooms each spring. The green leaves look great through out the growing season and develop a nice burgundy color in the fall.  



Here are the flower buds for the 'Shasta' viburnum soon to be in bloom. 


The Arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum 'Morton') is later to emerge and only has leaf buds showing at this point - so no pictures today! Eventually you'll also get to see the Snowball viburnum in bloom. It's not blooming yet but soon though! It's a pretty good time of year, don't you think?

For more on Viburnums and how to propagate them check out these posts:


If you don't already own this book and would like to learn much more about all the different kinds of viburnums available I highly recommend Micheal Dirr's book Viburnums: Flowering Shrubs for Every Seasonit's a must have for your garden library if you like viburnums!

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