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Nature Hills Top 5 Amazing Viburnum Shrubs & Their Care!

Nature Hills Top 5 Amazing Viburnum Shrubs & Their Care!

Nature Hills Nursery |

Viburnum shrubs have proven themselves to be a superb shrub family. Their stylish form and attractive foliage make them a top choice to use for hedging and specimens. You’ll find a wide range of Viburnum shrubs for sale at Nature Hills Nursery!

Viburnum Shrubs

Featuring over 150 evergreen, semi-evergreen and deciduous woody varieties, these flowering shrubs are a boon to both pollinators and local birds in your area, and new and improved cultivars are being brought to market regularly! Going by a range of names throughout the US, like Cranberrybushes, Arrowwood, Hobblebush, Nannyberries, and even Snowball bushes because of the rounded mophead flowers many display! 

Many cultivars produce berries, with proper pollination. Some Viburnums also deliver fall color to enjoy as your year winds down to a close. Nature Hills Nursery makes a determined effort to keep up with the demand from our customers.

Incredibly Adaptable Ornamental Flowering Viburnum Shrubs

Gardeners love the Viburnum performance and the variety of sizes. But, most of all, they love the colorful (and sometimes fragrant) flowers, fruit, and fall foliage colors! Planting Viburnum shrubs is an excellent way to assure you of a beautiful landscape through the growing season.

They are oh so adaptable! 

  • Wide range of USDA hardiness zones and climate-tolerances
  • Flowers, fruit & fall color
  • Tolerate clay soil
  • Drought resistant
  • Many are deer resistant
  • Disease resistant
  • Blissfully easy to care for and maintain
  • Juglone resistant
  • Major wildlife, songbird & pollinator resource

Featuring leaves that often have toothy edges and deep venation that add incredible texture, many Viburnums have shiny leaves, and most display the most dramatic fall color you can imagine! 

Shiny Dancer Viburnum

You’ll love the foliage with parallel veins of the David Viburnum and Moonlit Lace®, or the shiny purple cast that Shiny Dancer® displays! Add a burst of color offered by the Raspberry Tart or the maple leaf-shaped foliage of the Cranberrybush Viburnums.

Elegant Viburnum shrubs also look great through the seasons. Flowers, fruit, and fall color for so many of them, and in the warmer climates some are evergreen.

Easy Breezy Viburnum Care

Plant Viburnum in full sun or partial shade for the best flowering and fruiting. Provide moderate water on a consistent schedule. These shrubs are highly adaptable and tolerate a wide range of soil types and climates! Once established, Viburnum needs moderate moisture throughout the growing season, many varieties have low moisture needs too! Add a 3-4 inch thick layer of mulch to insulate and retain moisture.

Prune after flowering for most cultivars, or in late winter or early spring for others. Or renewal prune in late winter or early spring by removing the oldest thickest stems and leaving the thinner younger stems in place. You’ll find pruning information on each plant's individual information page. Always read the Plant Highlights on each product page for specifics! Buy Viburnum any time of the year, and we'll ship them to you when the time is right for planting in your area.

Using Viburnums to Define Your Landscape

Using Viburnums to define your landscape

Professional landscape designers incorporate Viburnum shrubs in their plans all across the United States. You can count on many years of high-performance and trim and handsome good looks! 

This wildlife-friendly family is versatile and includes tightly compact cultivars and large specimens for you to choose from depending on the room you have available! In small yards, add the heavenly fragrance of Spice Baby Koreanspice Viburnum calls to you without taking up too much room, or a Blue Muffin Viburnum, also an outstanding smaller shrub for limited spaces.

If you have room for a small tree, try Nannyberry Viburnum! This is a national treasure with multiple seasons of interest. Other large Viburnum like the Lantana can be kept au naturel as a large, multi-stemmed shrub or limbed up to remove the lower branches to reveal the multi-trunked tree-form! Or just go ahead and purchase the Snowball Viburnum Tree Form and have all the work done for you on arrival!

By adding garden walls you can use Viburnums as task-specific outdoor rooms or create a showy screen! Especially the semi and fully evergreen varieties like the Yin® David & Yang® David Viburnums for year-round privacy and to enjoy some green in the dreary winter months! Planting Viburnum shrubs to create garden rooms to increase the value of your usable space. Your whole family can live a lot larger with a series of designated outdoor rooms.

Modern plant design is all about easy privacy! People prefer tidy, manicured shrubs with lots of flowers and brilliant fall colors. You won't find a more valuable choice for this than Viburnums (although we may be biased). You'll get the look you want in your screen plantings and shrub borders.

Try one at the corner of your garage to soften the transition. Planting a single specimen Viburnum bush in the yard creates a pretty backdrop for entertaining, or hide your urban chicken coop and HVAC unit! Talk about pinpoint screening! 

Flowering Viburnum Shrubs Support Pollinators & Birds

The Flowers!

Flowering Viburnum Shrubs that Support Pollinators and Birds

Of course, the creamy white blooms of the flowering Viburnum shrubs are what bring the butterflies and bees into your garden! Their nectar must be irresistible! All Viburnum blooms are clusters of tiny true flowers. However, there are three different cluster shapes:

  1. The first is flat-topped and packed with tiny, star-shaped flowers 
  2. The second features lacecap-style panicles
  3. The third is big round snowball-like mopheads

Get incredible flower power from Doublefile Viburnums, or enjoy the light and airy Summer Snowflake Viburnum with its romantic lacecap blossoms! No one could mistake the Chinese Snowball Viburnum for those massive, white flowers. Get fragrant yellow blooms with the Alleghany Viburnum, its attractive, leathery foliage remains semi-evergreen in warmer growing zones! And enjoy rosy buds and baby pink mopheads of the Cayuga Viburnum!

Pollinators galore rush to these blossoms for their nectar and pollen bounty! You might even see a hummingbird stopping by for a sip! These are vitally important shrubs for local bees and butterfly species, in fact, several butterflies use Viburnums as their host plants to feed their larvae. Including the Azure Butterfly, Silkmoth, Sphinx moths, and Clearwing moths! These support the local butterfly and moth species and the songbirds that feed them to their chicks!

The Berries!

You’ll be amazed at the rainbow of colors that Viburnum fruit comes in! Ranging from red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo, and violet. Sometimes with many colors at the same time! Local songbirds and wildlife adore munching on these berries! As with pollinators, these berries are a vital food source for birds looking for a late summer treat!

Even humans can enjoy the fruits of some of the species of Viburnums, while others are not. Be sure to research which variety you have before sampling one! The edible varieties produce late summer to autumn bounties that taste great raw or cooked. You’ll enjoy the preserves, wines, syrups, tea, dried and included in desserts! 

The Berries Golden Sunset Arrowwood Viburnum

The Golden Sunset Arrowwood Viburnum has lovely golden berries, the Viburnum Redwing American Cranberrybush has bright red fruits, and Chicago Lustre and Blue Muffin® both sport bright blue berries! You’ll also love the mix of blue and red berries on the Brandywine™!

Plant native Arrowwood Viburnum for flowers, berries and stick-straight branches. They have delightfully corrugated foliage and deliver a crisp, tailored look.

The colorful Viburnum berries provide winter interest and lure wildlife with easy nutrition. Viburnum needs two or more plants to cross-pollinate the blooms. Pick different members of the same species and keep them close to each other for the best results. 

Keep in mind that not all Viburnums produce berries, however. Look at the botanical name: 

Whether for yourself or your birds, the fruit is always a highly anticipated fall accent on your shrub! Remember many of these fruiting Viburnum do need a pollination partner to achieve maximum fruit set.

The Top 5 Viburnums at Nature Hills!

#5 Doublefile Viburnum

One of the most beautiful Viburnums is the gracefully architectural Mariesii Doublefile Viburnum. It's nicknamed the Wedding Cake, and each horizontal branch spreads wide and the tops are covered in lacecap blooms in a way that makes it look like a tiered cake covered in frosting. In spring, each branch is loaded with a double layer and double row of flat-topped clusters that become bright red berries!

  • Double rows of snowy white blooms
  • Tiered horizontal branches
  • Fantastic fall color
  • Mature Height 
  • USDA zones 5 - 8

#4 Common Snowball Viburnum

Another fun choice for a sunny location is Common Snowball Viburnum. Kids get a bang out of the round flower clusters. These impressive shrubs feature a huge spring display! Then fall arrives with incredible purples and reds to finish out the growing season. Snip them for a lovely cut flower indoors. These are unique, cold-hardy shrubs that are sterile and won’t produce fruit.

  • Big round pompoms of pure white
  • Great fall color
  • Sterile selection so no messy fruit
  • 8-12 feet tall and wide at maturity
  • USDA zones 4 - 8

#3 Brandywine™ Viburnum

The Brandywine is a truly unique mid-sized shrub that has it all! Breathtaking and fragrant while rounded clusters of white blooms that become a mixed display of bright blue and pink berries! Deer resistant, adaptable, plus incredible deep maroon fall color, all contribute to this shrub earning the #3 spot on this list!

  • White mophead blooms
  • Blue and pink berries
  • Maroon fall color
  • Mature 5-6 feet tall and wide
  • USDA zones 5 - 9

#2 Koreanspice Viburnum Bush

With a spicy sweet fragrance and blushed pink blooms, Korean Spice Viburnums are a fan favorite! The waxy rounded flower clusters turn into red berries. The deep green leaves also turn a spice red and purple for a last burst of color before winter. Disease, deer, and insect resistant, these mid-sized shrubs are very adaptable! The waxy blooms are great in floral arrangements, allowing you to bring that fragrance indoors.

  • Blushed pink 3-inch round blooms
  • Very fragrant blossoms for pollinators
  • Deep green foliage & fall color
  • Red berries for birds!
  • 4-5 feet in mature height and width
  • USDA hardiness zones 5 - 9

#1 The Compact American Cranberrybush Bush

The highest rated on the Nature Hills website earning it the top spot on our list! Four-inch clusters of white, lace-cap flowers in spring, a delicate welcome to the new season. Your Cranberrybushes serrated, lobed leaves emerge red-hued, but later transition to bright green for summer, turning to an appealing purple and red for autumn. Deer and disease resistant, these smaller versions of the hardy native are a boon to pollinators and wildlife, as well as extremely cold hardy!

  • 4-inch lacecap white blooms
  • Great maple leaf-shaped foliage
  • Red spring color and red and purple fall color
  • Edible red fruit for you and the wildlife
  • 5-6 feet wide and tall at maturity
  • Very cold hardy! USDA zones 2-7
Top 5 Collage

Great Natives and Cultivars for Your Landscape!

You’ll feel good about your investment in our high-quality, commercial-grade landscape plants that serve you well. Look through our extensive catalog of Viburnum bushes for sale, filtering by height, spread and growing zone.

Check out all the gorgeous Viburnum for sale at Nature Hills Nursery, and place your order today!

Happy Planting!

 

Find Your Garden's Growing Zone!

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When ordering a tree or plant, make sure to know your planting zone.

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