Blue Muffin® Arrowwood Viburnum

These days, people are searching to fill their landscapes with well-behaved plants that don't require much care. Modern landscapers crave seasonal color and demand benefits for local birds, butterflies, and pollinators. Here is one of the best compact shrubs that deliver big! A Proven Winners® selection, Blue Muffin® Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum BLUE MUFFIN 'Christom') is a durable, beautiful choice.

In early to mid-summer, you'll enjoy an abundance of beautiful, lacy, creamy white flower clusters on each of the branch tips in early summer. The early to mid-summer blooms make a crisp visual contrast with the glossy green leaves. Butterflies adore these blooms and will come from all around to visit your landscape. These flowers are held above upright branches, the foliage cloaks the plant from top to bottom. It holds its own in a manicured garden, with dark green summer leaves that are extraordinarily shiny.

The flowers then develop into berries if another Viburnum dentatum is close by to pollinate it. The berries are green and then ripen into this intense blue color and seem to float above the foliage nicely. You'll be thrilled by the impressive display of rich and intensely blue berries that inspired the name Blue Muffin®. his dramatic blue fruit set is greatly improved if there is another variety of Arrowwood Viburnum in the area to cross-pollinate. Look to Chicago Lustre, or Arrowwood Viburnum from Nature Hills!

The berries are not edible to humans, but the birds and other wildlife love them! The fruit appears in late summer and fall, adding interest to the landscape and attracting songbirds. Use a few branches to bring indoors for wonderfully modern cut flower arrangements.

The fall foliage can be a mix of yellow, vibrant red and deep purple in the autumn, depending on where it is grown. With its well-balanced, upright branch structure, you'll love the Blue Muffin® Arrowwood all year-long even after the leaves drop and the birds pick the berries clean.

Planting and Application:

Blue Muffin® suits both formal and informal landscapes. With a wonderfully compact growth habit, you can use it all over your yard as a foundation, screening, or filler plant, plus the lustrous blue fruits that inspired its name!

This right-sized shrub fits beautifully in modern landscapes. You can keep it pruned to any size, and it even grows very successfully in those enormous, outdoor containers. Why not use a series of large containers along the length of your patio or pool deck? Coordinate with your home's exterior and create a very stylish focal point with very little effort. Install drip irrigation to make it even easier for yourself.

Use one on either side of your front door for a wonderfully welcoming, natural display. Or, plant 3 feet apart on center to create a solid screen. You'll measure from the center of one plant to the center of the next.

Use them as a low hedge along your foundation or line your side yard or driveway. It is an excellent plant that brings many desired ornamental features to your landscape. The deer seem to leave alone. Easy-care, durable shrubs, they're often used in high-impact mass plantings in many commercial landscapes all across the Midwest.

Use a zig-zagging, staggered planting pattern to create a mass planting to fill wide-open areas. Don't forget to include a long row of their pollinator partners in your design. Mulch between plants and keep new mass plantings weeded until the plants grow together.

Create a backdrop of Blue Muffin® Viburnum to showcase its excellent, dark, glossy foliage and colorful flower and fruit. Use this plant along the back of your perennial border or repeatedly across the midsection of your mixed shrub border. Consider adding a few Blue Muffin® shrubs to each of your garden beds. This designer trick easily unifies the entire landscape.

For a fabulous, easy-care look, use several of our special Viburnum varieties in a mixed shrub border running the length of your back fence line while increasing pollination and creating a shelterbelt for wildlife! Mulch a 15-foot wide planting bed and use a series of loose triangles and curving lines. Use several plants of each variety and repeat their use along the length of the new planting. For the best results, use an odd number of plants in each group.

• Lacy White Flower Clusters For Pollinators
• Very Attractive Glossy Green Leaves
• Birds Love the Bright-Blue Berries in Late Summer!
• Burnished-Red Foliage in Autumn
• Viburnum with a Nice Compact Outline
• Excellent Hedge or Low Screen, Specimen & Fall Color Accent

#ProPlantTips for Care:

Blue Muffin® will perform best in full sun and well-drained soil. However, these rugged little beauties can tolerate partial sun/partial shade and will adapt well to a variety of soils after the plants are established in your landscape. And we would also tell you to protect your investment in prolonged drought by giving supplemental water on a regular basis. Blue Muffin® will perform best with medium moisture. You won't have to fuss or muss with these plants.

Remember that Viburnum flowers are borne on last year's growth. Wait to prune until after the blooms are done in the spring. Time it carefully, or you'll risk the blooms and fruit next year. For the best-looking hedge, grow it untrimmed on top. Renewal prune out the oldest, thickest stems every 3 years or so allowing the younger and more vigorous, thinner stems to flower and make fruit to enjoy. These flowering shrubs bloom on old wood, so timing when pruning is important. By skipping pruning and renewal pruning only, you'll still enjoy the gorgeous fruit!

Plant additional Arrowwood Viburnums (Viburnum dentatum) nearby to pollinate Blue Muffin® so that fruit production is increased or you will not see the fruit display. We offer several Arrowwood varieties!

In an average year that sees normal deer pressure and rainfall, this variety is both Deer resistant and drought-tolerant. But hungry deer may take a nibble, so we do always recommend using Deer Repellent Spray on all new plants and reapply according to the directions.

• Grows in Full Sun or Partial Shade
• Moderate Moisture Needs
• Appreciates Enriched Well-Drained Soil & Mulched Beds
• Deer Seem to Leave This Plant Alone
• Pollinate with Chicago Lustre or Other Arrowwood Viburnum
• Juglone and Deer Resistance
• Prune After Flowering - Blooms on Old Wood

Our expert growers love Viburnum and take delight in shipping very healthy, top-grade plants directly to your door. the Blue Muffin® Arrowwood Viburnum is a wonderful, hard-working, handsome shrub, and you'll love using them throughout your garden design. Order yours today at Nature Hills!