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Deciduous Flowering Shrubs - Part 7 - Viburnum

© Marge Talt

Viburnums - Part 1

There's a Viburnum for every garden from USDA zones 3 to 9. Some are evergreen or partially so, but most of them are deciduous shrubs (some could be considered small trees) who provide flowers and fruit, with some giving a good show of fall leaf color.

Some of the one hundred twenty or so species in this genus, belonging to the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, are native to the US, others hail from China and Japan. Many are of strictly hybrid origin.

Several require full sun, but most will grow and flower in part shade, becoming less compact in growth than if grown in sun. V. acerifolium and V. lantanoides (syn. V. alnifolium) must have cool, moist shade or they won't do well at all. V. cassinoides is also good for shade.

Flowers

Listed next to each of the three types of flower forms are some of the species with that type of flower. Different species flower at different times - from very early spring to early summer. Those with the snowball form have only sterile flowers and never fruit. Those with flowers that are very like the lace cap hydrangea have a central mass of fertile flowers surrounded by larger sterile florets. The "fertile" form flowers are composed totally of small fertile flowers.

Fruit

The lace cap and fertile flowering forms can provide colorful fruit from late summer on - some lasting quite long into winter. Very early flowering forms may not produce fruit because they flower so early that pollinating insects aren't out and about. Wind and insects have to be operating just as the pollen is ready. If the weather is cold and rainy, pollination may be poor and fruits will be sparse or absent. Some forms fruit more profusely if there are more than one of them in the garden.

drupe A fleshy or pulpy fruit containing one or more hard, stony seeds.

Berry, or more correctly "drupe", colors include yellow, red, blue, black and some who go through a colorful change from green to yellow to red to blue-black, sometimes with all the colors in the same cluster simultaneously.

Drupe Color - Species

Yellow	Red	Blue	Black	Multi
V. opulus 'Xanthocarum' V. sargentii 'Flavum' V. dilatatum 'Xanthocarum'

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