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kkbix

Viburnums???

kkbix
18 years ago

Do Viburnums grow well in the shade? I have several that I planted along a forest edge and they will be in full to partial shade. Will they grow ok? Anyone have experience with Viburnums in shade?

Comments (10)

  • janetr
    18 years ago

    I sure hope so! I planted one in shade last year. It didn't get leggy, was nice and green and is full of leaf buds this spring. So far so good. I suppose flowers this year is an unreasonable expectation, but hope springs eternal...

    What variety do you have?

  • kkbix
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    I planted 5 Autumn Jazz, 1 Blue Muffin and 1 Arrowwood. 3 will be in fairly deep shade, 2 in partial shade and 1 will get a decent amount of sun. I'm not necessarily concerned about them not growing...I'm just worried that they won't bloom and fruit in the shade. Anyone else with any insight?

  • bunnycat
    18 years ago

    We moved to our current location over 10 years ago. Four large shrubs..more like small trees, were on the east side of the house. Some had no flowers, some had about six. The leaves and and flowers looked like my viburnms that grew in our previous full sun yard....but I thought they couldn't possibly be viburnums. My other viburnums were overloaded with flowers.

    We now live in an oak forest, and after cutting down dozens of small, medium and large oaks, we still have about 40 large trees on a half acre. The change after cutting down and limbing up trees was immediate. The viburnums now get all day dappled sun, and a couple of hours of direct sun. They bloom profusely.

    My guess is that the viburnums are somewhat shade tolerant, but need a certain amount of sun to flower and fruit heavily.

    ~Bunnycat

  • lisa03
    18 years ago

    I agree with Bunnycat that viburnums prefer some sun. The one viburnum that I use a lot in shade (no direct sun areas) is leatherleaf viburnum (rhytidophylloides). I have found it to be quite drought tolerant (I plant it under large maples), its foliage looks good almost year round (it is semievergreen in my USDA zone 5) and it has some blooms even without direct sun. If you want it to be compact in shade, you will need to prune it, as otherwise it has a more open habit (which I still find attractive, but not so useful if you want a dense screen). Also, I have found it to be unaffected by the viburnum beetle.

  • ashli
    18 years ago

    I had a Viburnum growing under a Sweet Gum tree...for 10 years...it got huge...not alot of flowers...but it served my purpose for planting it there...it gave some privacy...and I would plant Impatiens in front of it every Spring...I say HAD because a week ago...my husband decided to do some shrub pruning with a chain saw...I gasped when I saw that he had cut the viburnum down to the ground, leaving only stumps...so much for respecting anothers' plants!...when I asked him Why? why?...he confessed that he never liked it and thought it was ugly.
    He 'secretly' he thought, got our daughter to order 2 Christmas hollies to replace it. (We have enough hollies already)...
    Beware of men with chain saws in their hands...ha

  • magda
    18 years ago

    I have three in the shade (partial to almost full) and they are doing very well: Viburnum Shasta, Viburnum Summer Snowflake- almost full shade between a yew and a pine tree, and a self seeder Leatherleaf Viburnum squeezed between the pine tree and a honeysuckle. They all flower very well, and I am in love with them :)
    I feel very sorry for you Ashli.

  • ctgph
    17 years ago

    Some doublefiles in thickly dappled under high oaks. No more than an hour of direct sun. Leggy, but flowering and and otherwise healthy. I still think they are nice, and they are more subtle then the puffballs in full sun - at least that's what I tell myself ;)
    Gregg

    Here's one hiding behind a branch.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1252495}}

  • lisa03
    17 years ago

    Very nice, Gregg. It's flowering beautifully. You are lucky you have high oaks to garden under. I inherited dozens of 50 year or older maples and wish they were oaks.

  • BushelBasketOH
    10 years ago

    Any good viburnums to plant under oaks that also have winter interest? Thank you.

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