What to plant with leatherleaf viburnum to encourage fruiting

[seth83]

Hello. New to the forum...

Also rather new to viburnum. We bought a 1 gallon leatherleaf (Viburnum rhytidophyllum) recently as they were very healthy and on sale. This type of v. has never been my favorite plant for our climate but I still want it to thrive.

What other kind of viburnum can we plant nearby to encourage fall fruiting? I'd rather another variety of viburnum instead of more leatherleaf. I'm looking at Arrowwood v.

 

[Marck]

Hello, and welcome to the Forums.

Arrowwoood (Viburnum dentatum) would be a fine choice for blue fruit. Perhaps also plant Cranberry-Bush (Viburnum trilobum) for bright red fruit or Blackhaw Viburnum (V. prunifolium) for bluish-black fruit. All of these species are deciduous, unlike the evergreen V. rhytidophyllum. All four species also have distinctly different foliage for contrast and visual interest. Another one I'm particularly fond of is Koreanspice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii), which has delectably fragrant flowers, as well as red berries.

Of course there are a number of other cultivated Viburnum to consider. I think planting a collection of different kinds together would make a beautiful and educational display. Viburnum davidii and V. tinus are two species commonly planted in my area, but they would be too frost-tender for Kansas.

 

[seth83]

Hello, and welcome to the Forums.

Arrowwoood (Viburnum dentatum) would be a fine choice for blue fruit. Perhaps also plant Cranberry-Bush (Viburnum trilobum) for bright red fruit or Blackhaw Viburnum (V. prunifolium) for bluish-black fruit. All of these species are deciduous, unlike the evergreen V. rhytidophyllum. All four species also have distinctly different foliage for contrast and visual interest. Another one I'm particularly fond of is Koreanspice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii), which has delectably fragrant flowers, as well as red berries.

Of course there are a number of other cultivated Viburnum to consider. I think planting a collection of different kinds together would make a beautiful and educational display. Viburnum davidii and V. tinus are two species commonly planted in my area, but they would be too frost-tender for Kansas.

Thanks for your suggestions. We went with arrowwood, doublefile and burkwood. They were all planted in summer though and have not done well. The larger plants (including the leatherleaf) have bounced back better since the cooler temps arrived but the starter plants have not. I'm wondering if they went dormant and the roots are still healthy. There's a little bit of life on top but not much. Based on what I've seen, I don't recommend planting viburnum in mid-summer, especially smaller plants. At least in areas with consistent heat like we have here. They fry.

Back to the original question, are you saying planting different types of v. together will influence the color of fruits on the leatherleaf? I hadn't thought of that. I've seen this type of thing in the vegetable garden though.

 

[Marck]

That does sound like a nice array of Viburnum shrubs. Burkwood Viburnum (V. x burkwoodii) is quite similar to V. carlesii, the former being a hybrid of the latter, with V. utile as the other parent.

I agree. Summer is not the best time to plant shrubs or trees, or most perennial plants for that matter. It can be done, but watering becomes a bigger chore and it is still hard to get the balance right. It is sometimes best to keep them in their containers until Fall. However if the shrubs have made it this far, they may now have a better chance to establish themselves with cooler weather.

Planting different Viburnum together would give an array of fruit colors, but the plants wouldn't somehow directly influence each other's colour, other than by visual contrast.

 

[seth83]

Ahh, I see. Hopefully they all pull through and the birds get to enjoy a variety of berries.

The Burkwood has done the best so far out of the 4. It was a nice size when we bought it. This seems to have helped. The Doublefile and Arrowwood were small and have suffered the most. We also planted lots of perennials and managed to get the water balance right for most of them. But these Viburnums... they did not respond well at all to summer planting, at least in our climate.

We moved to this place in June. Everything was overgrown. I never want to see another euonymus vine in my life! In hindsight, we could have saved most of the planting for Fall and spent the summer preparing beds instead of trying to do it all at once.

 

[Marck]

Starting a new garden can be both the hardest and most exciting time. If there are still some green leave son your Viburnum, don't give up hope. They can be very resiliant shrubs.