Beautiful Summer Snowballs

By Jos Van Hage

A beautiful group of flowering shrubs is the Viburnum.

They have many different features throughout the season as many have green foliage that becomes red, orange and yellow in fall and fragrant flowers in summer that later become red or blue berries. The leaves are opposite meaning that they do not grow parallel with each other and can have simple, serrated or lobed edges with pronounced veins. On some varieties the leaves have a soft fur on the underside. Flowers are white and grow in clusters much like a hydrangea.

Prince George is a zone 3 so not all varieties of Viburnum will grow here but there are a few varieties that grow very well here and can be seen growing throughout the area. A very popular one is the ‘Viburnum opulus ‘Sterilis’ –Snowball which is one of the oldest cultivated flowering shrubs. The white flowers are 3 inch clusters that look very much like a snowball! The bush itself can grow as large as 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide. They are easy to care for by pruning them in the summer after they have finished blooming; removing the old flowers and thinning out some of the oldest branches making room for new growth. The Snowball does not produce berries.

Another variety of Viburnum is the ‘Wayfaring tree’ which is not really a tree but a bush. It grows 8-10 feet tall and wide and the leaves are dark green and leathery and flowers are clusters of creamy white. They produce colorful berries that start off as green and slowly change to light pink and then over the summer darken until they become black. They can be made into a jelly; however the birds enjoy them as well. For a high berry yield you should plant more than one plant for pollination.

The ‘European Cranberry and the Wentworth American Cranberry are both well grown Viburnums that have creamy white flowers. The European Cranberry grows 5 feet tall and wide, and the American Cranberry grows 8-10 feet tall and wide. The berries of the American Cranberry can be used in the making of jellies, and the fruit of the European Cranberry can be seen hanging from the plant throughout the winter. They both have nice fall color and can tolerate more shade than many of the other flowering shrubs.

Viburnums adapt to most soil types; however prefer a moist location in full to partial sun. They grow well in borders, hedges or as a specimen plant. They tend to be low maintenance only needing to have the oldest branches taken out every few years to help rejuvenate the plant, which is done in spring. On varieties that grow berries you do not want to remove the flowers after they have finished blooming as this will prevent the berries from coming.    

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