Nearly Native - European Garden Plants – Viburnam

Name – Viburnum opulus is commonly known as guelder rose or snowball tree.

Description – This elegant garden shrub, has heads of globular lace-cap type flowers, with a colour range from pale green to creamy white. The leaves colour up richly in late summer/autumn, and are followed by bunches of red translucent berries which remain (if the birds let them) after the leaves have fallen. A native version of this plant was the water or swamp elder, so called because it produced elder type fruit and liked damp growing conditions.

Origin – This plant is native to Europe, it was a spontaneous evolution of an existing shrub that happened in the Netherlands in 1591. It is a member of the honeysuckle (Caprifolicaeae) family and there are two forms of the shrub, fertile and infertile, the sterile being a white-headed blossom more often known as the snowball tree, while the fertile form is more commonly known as guelder rose. Like the native plant, these shrubs rather like damp ground, coping well against a north or west facing wall, for example, and don’t object to severe winters. They are quick growers, getting up to four metres, and do well as screens despite being deciduous, because the amount of foliage produced during the spring and summer makes a good screen. Many hybrids and cultivars have been produced, which offer smaller flowers but in a wider range of colours including pink.

For Decoration – Viburnum will wilt very quickly if left out of water. When cutting the stem, make a clean diagonal cut using a sharp knife. Remove leaves and place in deep water to condition before arranging.

Viburnam photograph by ndrwfgg, used under a creative commons attribution

 

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