LANDSCAPE USE & PLANTING PARTNERS VIBURNUM CARE Viburnum nudum L & CULTURE ‘Brandywine’ fruit Lee Powell likes to use single viburnums as garden • Viburnums are stars and multiples as hedge or background plants, undemanding, fairly combining deciduous viburnums with evergreens, such pest-free shrubs. as conifers, heathers and evergreen ornamental grasses. Try these on for size: • They grow well in our slightly acidic soil, providing the soil isn’t waterlogged or bone-dry. • Sun requirements range from full sun to part shade, depending on the species. Most perform best with a break from the afternoon sun. • Provide water for at least two summers to get

them established. Most

viburnums will perform provenwinners.com best with supplemental L summer water although Viburnum opulus a few, such as V. tinus and its varieties, are drought- tolerant once established. GREAT PLANT • Mulch once a year. Lee • Plant doublefile viburnum (Viburnum PICKS Powell prefers compost plicatum f. tomentosum) with Sedum p ‘Autumn to bark dust because Joy,’ ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass L compost will provide some (Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’) nutrition, which is good and ‘Little Diamond’ Japanese if you’re a bit lazy about cedar (Cryptomeria japonica fertilizing. ’Little Diamond’). • Fertilize with a product • Complement the glossy formulated for trees and green leaves of smooth shrubs, such as Espoma witherod (Viburnum Plant-tone or Dr. Earth nudum) cultivars with All Purpose Fertilizer. ‘Silver Anniversary’ abelia It’s especially important (Abelia x grandiflora ‘Silver during the first two years Anniversary’). after planting. • Blue-foliaged evergreens, • Use a light hand when iSTOCK INTERNATIONAL such as globe blue spruce

pruning most viburnums. (Picea pungens ‘Glauca iSTOCK INTERNATIONAL

V. tinus and its varieties will Viburnum dilatatum L Globosa’) 5 or ‘Heatherbun’ accept hedge pruning. Use ‘Oneida’ white cedar (Chamaecyparis an especially light hand thyoides ‘Heatherbun’), for doublefile viburnums, echo the color of blue- which don’t like pruning. fruited smooth witherod Prune spring-flowering and arrowwood (Viburnum shrubs right after bloom dentatum) viburnums. and summer-flowering shrubs in February to • Highlight red-fruited March. American cranberry bush (V. trilobum) and linden • Some viburnums berry viburnum (V. dilatatum) with well when planted singly, chartreuse-foliaged plants, but all will berry more such as ‘Lemon Gem’ Japanese heavily when multiples holly (Ilex crenata ‘Lemon are planted. V. nudum Gem’). • ‘Winterthur’ seems to

boost berry production for Freelance writer and master gardener Lisa Albert: [email protected] many viburnums. Marv Bondarowicz THE OREGONIAN Opiola Jerzy Wikimedia Commons