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Viburnums - Landcape and Garden Wonders
Viburnums are plant that I can't imagine a landscpe being
without. If I had to eliminate all varieties from my gardens
except for one I would be hard pressed to decide which to keep.
All varieties of viburnums are attractive, versatile, adaptable
shrubs for any landscape. They can be used as hedges or screens
and in mixed perennial/shrub borders. They can also stand alone
as specimen plants. They usually take the form of shrubs, but
some species can become small ornamental trees. They range in
size from the Dwarf American Cranberrybush at 2 feet tall by 2
feet wide, to the Siebold at over 15 feet tall.
Viburnums are plants with year round interest. Viburnums have
white to pink flowers in the spring. They have large, attractive
and often textured leaves. Some viburnums have wonderfully
fragrant flowers that are produced in snowball shaped clusters
in April. Their flower clusters can consist of pink buds, which
develop into white flowers. Some fruits are red and turn black
with age. Leaves are glossy, dark green and turn a burgundy
color in the fall. Midsummer berries are an important food
source for birds. Viburnums have colorful red to purple leaves.
Some viburnums can become medium-size trees, especially if they
are pruned. Viburnums excel as specimen plants or as anchors in
mixed borders. You won't find a more versatile group of shrubs
for hedges or for massing in groups, since viburnums hold their
own in every season. Some viburnums, such as Prague viburnum
'Pragense', are evergreen. Others, such as leatherleaf viburnum,
are semi-evergreen in colder climates, losing their leaves when
temperatures dip below 10 degrees.
We like Viburnums because of their adaptability and durability.
While they would prefer full sun and moderately watered,
well-drained rich soils, they grow very well in part shade in
alkaline, clay soils. Diseases and pests are not common for
viburnums. We have more trouble from my kids running over them
with brush hogs. They claim they were testing their durability.
Yet all the viburnums they chopped to the ground survived. In
fact, we sold these plants for a premium as they produced better
numbers of desireable stems. Their fibrous root system makes
them transplant and propagate easily. (We do have more
difficulty with the Korean Spice rooted cuttings.)
If you are shopping for a sharp hardy shrub consider one of the
many cultivars of the Viburnum family. In fact select a couple
of them. You will be rewarded with shrubs with all season
interest.
Viburnums have long been popular garden plants, celebrated for
their white, often fragrant spring flowers and their fall color.
But it's the Asian viburnums that have so far ruled the roost.
Perhaps the most widely appreciated viburnums are the Burkwood
viburnum (Viburnum x burkwoodii), and the Korean spice viburnum
(V. carlesii), both of which fill the air with a pleasant odorin
mid-spring. Also popular is the doublefile viburnum (V. plicatum
f. tomentosum), valued for its layered habit, fall foliage, and
clusters of red fruits. Viburnum acerifolium (Maple-leafed
viburnum) Although I wouldn't garden without any of these, I
have a special fondness for several of our very gardenworthy
native viburnums. They may not provide the enticing flower
fragrance of their Asian cousins, but I love them not only for
their rich fall foliage color but also for their fruit displays,
which attract wildlife to my garden in the fall and durring the
bleak winter months. In addition, several are useful to today's
waterwise gardeners or for urban conditions. They require only
corrective pruning, and none commonly suffer from pests or
diseases. I would be hardpressed to say which viburnum I would
choose if I could only have one.
Viburnums are moist woodland plants. In nature they are found
along steam banks from Long Island to Florida. When you come to
our 5275 West Swamp Rd. location ask us to show some in their
native habitat that we found along our stream bank. These plants
perform well under normal landscape conditions. I especially
like the floral display in the spring and these viburnums that
bear fruit in the fall.
Winterthur has great red leaves and
abundant fruit in the fall. This cultivar needs a cross
pollinator such as viburnum nudum.
Native Americans used Viburnum dentatum (arrowwood viburnum) for
arrow shafts. There stems are long and strait. This plant will
grow in places many plants struggle. So if you have had trouble
with plants in a harsh location try this cultivar. Viburnums We
raise over 10 types of Viburnums on our farms from seedlings to
5' shrubs. If you have poor soils due to compacting from
construction, try viburnums. Being rugged and hardy, they
perform where other plants fail. American Cranberry Bush
KoreanSpice Blackhaw ArrowwoodViburnum Chicago Luster (we have
500 3-6' that must be sold by Sept 28 2005) Dawn Summer
Snowflake Shasta Winterthur Blue Muffin Burkwood Erie Tea Judd
Korean Spice Praque Siebold
In the Tyrolean Alps, okay, the southern "Alps Mountains"
includes a region named Tyrol, a glacier-preserved 5,300-year
old "ice-mummy" was found in 1991. This prehistoric man was
preserved better than any other specimen ever found. What an
incredible discovery. He was just lying there in the snow of the
Hauslabjoch Pass on a warm September day when two hiking
tourists saw his head. He had a bow of Evergreen Yew wood and
arrows with shafts of Rosewood. There was even a stone arrowhead
of flint, the hardened dark quartz, an axehead, and what seemed
to be a medicine kit in a box of wood from a Birch tree. Birch
is a popular landscaping tree with many varieties. How 'bout
that, all these trees which are mentioned, we sell at Highland
Hill Farm!
Where we invite our customers to explore for Indian artifacts,
hunt, fish, camp, etc., maybe you can get lucky too. We have 5
properties, totalling 1100 acres, near the town of Milan, Pa, on
the western side of Susquehanna River in rural Bradford County.
From Highland Hill Farm it is about a two-hour drive if you'll
please obey the speed limits. America's prehistoric residents
and later Native American Indians used straight branches from
Arrowwood Viburnums, as the name implies, to make their arrows'
shafts. Did you ever wonder at what point in their growth the
outside of thin tree boughs and twigs develop bark and become
wood? When do little seedling's stems, their "mini-trunks," grow
up enough to develop bark and become wood? How thick does a
green wispy thin twig have to become before it's a branch of
wood? The answer is, generally, at about a half-inch diameter.
In fact, that is just about the diameter of the Alpine Iceman's
arrows.
The greatest find since the discovery of the Neanderthal
Neandertal) Man and the Cro-Magnon Man in France was barely a
few feet over the Italian side of the border with Austria
resting at an altitude of 10,500 feet. A total of four books,
two books popular enough to become paperbacks, have since been
written about "Oetzi," or "Otzi," as the ice-mummy has been
named. Uncovering the Life and Times of a Prehistoric Man Found
in an Alpine Glacier, by Brenda Fowler, was published in 2000.
The Man in the Ice was published in 1995, by Konrad Spindler,
the local archaeologist brought in when it became obvious a
modern-day murder victim hadn't been found. His book was updated
in 2001. Two children's books have also been published to help
develop their interest in historical science as something
they'll find "current," and not "boring." The intense study of
the "ice-mummy" yielding all the detailed information for these
books was performed at Innsbruck University, and the body is now
on display at the museum in Bolzano, Italy.
Do you see it? The point here is that when you plant trees and
shrubs you aren't just creating aesthetics, adding beauty, as
implied by "ornamental" in so many of the names. You aren't just
adding a wind break or privacy screen. You are, in fact, giving
your property additional natural resources.
After all the hours spent on this, and the !%^&@$*%#!
Are/but/a/vitae, I need a break. If you need more info go to
http://www.seedlingsrus.com/Viburnums.html
About the author:
Bill grows 10 varieties of viburnums on his farm in Doylestown
Pa.
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