The flowers are pink in bud, opening to tight balls of blossoms reaching up to five inches (12.69 cm) in diameter. It's a semi-snowball; snowball in shape but supposedly fertile.
Dirr says it forms a red drupe that changes to black. However, I've never seen one in all the years I've had it, which could be because of its very early flowering period.
The scent is like honey whether you've got your nose buried in the blossom or are many feet away - it fills the garden...and it says "spring" to me.
Propagation is easy from softwood cuttings and it's fairly fast growing.
I bought V. plicatum 'Sterile' as V. tomentosum 'Mariesii' about fourteen years ago and happily called it that until about four or five years ago, when it penetrated my brain that 'Mariesii's' flowers were quite different. That started a search for identity. Until recently, I've called her V. plicatum forma plicatum, which I'd found somewhere and cannot relocate the reference, although Heronswood Nursery lists this and the description fits my plant. Current searching only turns up that name as an unverified one in 'The Flora of China'. Since it is a snowball type and sterile, I will run with 'Sterile' until I find out differently. The common name is Japanese snowball. Whichever it is, it should prove hard from USDA zones 5 to 8.
Although totally unscented, I love this shrub. The form is a rounded mound, with branches layered to the ground - where they will self layer if you don't watch them. My shrub is about eight feet (2.4 m) tall and wider at the base. I have never had occasion to prune this shrub, other than the removal of occasional dead wood.
My shrub is growing in part shade. It does get direct sun in the middle of the day and a few late rays creep in through the trees on the west side - possibly as much as three hours of direct sun a day.
I have rooted softwood and semi-hardwood cuttings with ease - Dirr says it is one of the easiest species to root.
The flowers are incredibly lovely, weighing down the branches, when in full spate. The leaves are also quite neat, almost corregated.
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