Viburnum Bodnantense and Callicarpa ( Beautyberry)

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VIBURNUM BODNANTENSE AND CALLICARPA (BEAUTYBERRY)

Both these plants do one thing well. graceless laterals will shoot out in all Beautyberries have clusters of brilliant directions in a most unpleasing and purple berries that persist throughout angular way. There's nothing to be done the fall. Viburnum bodnantense has about it. It's just their natural 'habit', as extremely fragrant, clusters of small they say. People who have these shrubs pink flowers in the early spring or late are always wanting me to 'fix' them with winter. This makes them plants for pruning either people who like plants, and for people because: 1) the who like something interesting going on shrubs are in their gardens all year long. These getting much deciduous shrubs are both tall and bigger than skinny. Callicarpa is 6 feet high or more. they thought Viburnum bodnantense grows to 10 feet they would or or more. That's as tall or taller than you. 2) the plants And you should pay attention. My just don't look experience is that everybody is in a right. state of denial about the size their Unfortunately, shrubs (and trees) are going to get. But neither they really will get that big, and sooner complaint can than you think, and you can't stop them be fixed with with pruning. By the way, Beautyberry pruning. (Callicarpa) is not the same thing as The more Hey guys, there’s no sign of Beauty bush which is a Kolkwitzia. you prune that escaped giraffe… for size control, the faster the shrubs will grow (with even more and uglier upright branches). On the other hand, if you don't prune, and you just let them grow unmolested for twenty years, they eventually develop what could be termed an arching branch structure. Patience, not pruning, is the key to Beautyberry creating graceful, arching branches.

Horticulturists who are familiar with The other common feature of these two these shrubs don't find their habit plants is that they are both, well, gawky. disturbing. They know it's just how They grow straight up with many skinny these plants look. Neophytes just sort of trunks or canes. From these, equally expect all shrubs to look pretty much

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the same -- which is to say fatter than have a huge mess on their hands). I cut they are tall, globe-shaped and about these unfortunate shrubs to the ground, four or five feet tall. (That's the shrubs, or a foot or so above, and then let them not the neophytes) It's how we drew regrow for three to five years. Most new them with crayons as kids and nobody gardeners can't believe this is okay, and corrected us. It is as if we expected all it is rather like surgery. I tell students animals to look either like horses or the difference between radical dogs. Where does that put elephants, renovation and plant mutilation is what ostriches and eels? Callicarpas and V. the guy down the block did is bodnantense are sort of like the giraffes mutilation. of the plant world. I'm sure they look What I did quite natural to each other. And when is you get used to them, they will look renovation. right to you too. Actually, the biggest Replacement Pruning difference Some people prune the deciduous is that I cut Viburnums like they do Forsythias, by even cutting some of the canes to the ground LOWER, so Topiary Viburnum masquerading as a pink Brillo pad every year. This will stimulate new that the shoots, called suckers, to grow up from whole the cut and become, over the course of plant matches itself when it regrows. I the next few years, replacement canes. am careful to do it in the late If you don't cut out too many canes or winter/early spring, when it will have too large canes, you might not even the longest period of benign wet stimulate new shoot growth. That weather in which to recover. And I know would be nice because then your shrub what to expect over the course of the will stay thinned out, and, if the cane (or next few years. Basically, I know what trunk) you removed happened to be the I'm doing. tallest one, you will have successfully made your shrub moderately shorter. I Radical renovation is the fast way to re- don't know if this system works for establish the natural habit of a plant, Callicarpa, but I assume it would. although it will be a scary sight for a few years or until they 'sort themselves out. The renovated shrubs will rapidly grow Radical Renovation and Rehabilitation to almost their original size, and for Mal-pruned Plants. therefore Radical Renovation is not I don't like most renewal pruning good for size control. It is also hard on systems However, I occasionally do a their health. Like surgery, it is a Rad-Reno (radical renovation) on calculated risk. And every once in a previously mal-pruned plants (e.g. if while, we lose one. Therefore, a little someone tried to cut their old viburnum additional water in the summer is a or callicarpa into a big ball and now good idea while the shrub is still in

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recovery. And radical renovation should wrong, you will have a nightmare of only be done infrequently, maybe once regrowth the next year. Restraint is every fifteen years or so. There are a especially hard on these really twiggy couple of other ways to rehabilitate plants. Just for starters, don't take out mal-pruned plants. One can cut out one- more than an eighth of the plant in a third of the canes (to the ground) for year. If you find that you get heavy three years in a row. Or you can let it regrowth the next season, then DO grow out for a few years. It's a lot like LESS, NOT MORE. The plant is telling growing your bangs out. The in-between you that it must have a certain amount phase makes you nutty. Then go inside of leaves to stay healthy. and thin out the worst clusters of overcrowded branches. It is always okay to take out dead wood, dead stubs and such. It doesn't count in Thinning the pruning budget and it ALWAYS Mostly I just thin these plants with a makes things look better. It is the first light hand. If you prune too much (and it thing good pruners do. Then go on to doesn't take much with the viburnums) general thinning for good looks. you just stimulate lots of ugly Concentrate on taking out a few of the watersprouts (skinny, rapid growing worst lateral branches that hit the shoots) to grow next season. house or that threaten to poke passersby in the eye. Then look for Mr. Wrong Way. He's the branch that starts on one side of the shrub and crosses back through the center and out the other side. And look for ones that actually cross and rub each other. Remove one of the crosser/rubbers, if to do so will not leave a big hole or Rubbing exceed your pruning budget. Keep branch moving. When in doubt, just leave the crossing branches in question and move on to another side of the plant. Get out before you do too much. Young plants probably should take only 60 seconds of pruning. Old shrubs, maybe fifteen minutes to half an hour.

Timing Branch on the ground I don't care what the other pruning guides say, it doesn’t matter when you Don't judge your pruning job just on prune these shrubs, if you are how it looks right after you are through. selectively pruning them. (Radical If you prune out everything that is renovation and shearing are not

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selective pruning.) You will just lose the blooms on the branches you cut out. There will be plenty of blooms or berries left on the branches that you left unpruned. I don't know how timing got to be such a big deal. On these plants I prefer to prune them while they are in bloom or in berry so I can bring the cut branches inside for table arrangements. It's not like you will shock the rest of the plant into not blooming next year.

The Best Pruning The best pruning for these plants is practically no pruning, because they have been correctly sited. In other words, they should be placed where they have all the room they need to grow as high and as wide as they want. Put them in a bed that can be enlarged to accommodate their widening skirts, or put them in the back of a border. Place them were they can be easily seen in the fall or winter (or early spring for V. b.), near an entryway or easily viewed from a window. But neither of these shrubs should stand alone as a focal point, nor put too close to the main entry or window. They should be tucked in among more universally acceptable shrubs (or, alternately, segregated in a mass planting in the winter garden). In other words, put these plants where they can be admired when they are doing their thing, but where their flaws can be easily overlooked the rest of the year.