Arrowwood Viburnum Anyone?

8 years ago

So, I'm designing this smallish shrub grouping and would really like to use one or more arrowwood viburnum cultivars. Meanwhile, the imported pest-viburnum leaf beetle-is yet another foreign insect making its way across the country. There are reports from
Wisconsin, near Milwaukee. I live and work 100 miles north of that city. So I ask, would I be a big fool-or just a little idiot-to still be planting this shrub in this composition? I've read and re-read all the pertinent info. I know of at least one very major grower in this state that has moved away from offering this plant. What think ye all? Anybody else here from the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes states with an opinion one way or the other?

Thanks...................+oM

Comments (5)

WoodsTea 6a MO
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Hmm, that's too bad about the beetle. I'd been looking at planting a couple of V. dentatum this fall. UW Extension seems to think it's a bad idea there in Wisconsin:

http://hort.uwex.edu/articles/viburnum-leaf-beetle
wisconsitom
Original Author
8 years ago
Yeah, I was in communication with our University Extension Entomologist. The trend seems clear, the threat is real. This little task is within the stormwater mgt. vegetation portion of my job, and we nearly always select native plants for these projects, all the way up to and including selecting seed for meadow grasses and forbs from within a couple hundred miles. This location however, is in a straight-up residential neighborhood-nice houses were torn down to build this pond-and considerably more leeway applies in terms of plant palette. I don't mean by that that I ever feel limited by the natives-only aspect of this work, but that landscape nativars and even cultivars of non-natives may be used. In any case, it might be time to look at options.

+oM
Related Discussions
arrowwood viburnum - size
Q
Comments (4)
A lovely plant, but quiet and well-behaved. If you want to crowd out nonnatives, try grey dogwood instead. I've got both in the same shrub border, and the arrowwood basically stays put, while the grey suckers all over the place. Both are lovely plants and wonderful wildlife plants. For fall color, arrowwood turns a maroon-purple. It's pretty but not especially notable--but mine is right in front of a Virginia creeper, and surrounded by grey dogwood, and nothing could compete with that.
...See More
Favorite Arrowwood-type Viburnum?
Q
Comments (4)
Very interesting, Bruce, and most helpful. So, I was at a good garden center two days ago, looking at their AWV offerings. They had both 'Blue Muffin' and 'Autumn Jazz'. Both looked neat and clean, both had lots of fruit clusters, and both were in good supply for this job, albeit that may come a bit later, in the fall. But the real kicker was, I stopped at one of our community's swimming pools. This large installation has very extensive grounds, lots of shrub beds, and loads of viburnums. In fact, it was this planting in particular which led me to appreciate the AWV. While I did not design this site, I was around from its inception and have always noticed lots of fruiting on the AWs there. Installed in 1991 or thereabouts, I doubt the designer would have used two AWV varieties, nor is there any outward sign of this being the case. They all look the same and they are full of fruit. I guess I'm really wondering about the veracity of the claim that two simultaneously-blooming cultivars are needed for good fruit set in this plant. I used to have the landscape plan for this site but it is long gone. It really seems doubtful to me-knowing who it was that designed it, as well as the physical evidence-that there are two arrowwood viburnum varieties present within this planting. I just really don't think that to be the case. There are however good numbers of cranberrybush viburnums present, but it seems doubtful that would play any role. At any rate, you've steered me off the 'Blue Muffin' even though the store ones looked good, as your experience suggests it may not be all that. Additionally, I'm starting to strongly doubt I need to somehow incorporate that second pollinizer variety into this planting, given your words as well as my own observations. Thanks again. +oM
...See More
Would an Arrowwood pollinate a Wentworth?
Q
Comments (10)
Just a comment: Viburnums are great shrubs. But if you are in certain areas of the east, do be on the watch for Viburnum leaf beetle, yet another new import that is decimating especially arrrowwood Viburnum in these areas. The good news is that it's super-easy to scout for the egg masses at this time of year, just before the plants leaf out. The egg masses are easily seen and can simply be scraped off and taken out of the area. The female will have laid them on twig ends. My state has recorded a couple sightings of this insect, to the south of where I operate. So I still went ahead and planted some arrowwoods for a recent project. One quick visit in early spring has assured me-and I expected this-that no Viburnum leaf beetles are present.
...See More
Arrowwood viburnum, viburnum opulus var, americanum, or....
Q
Comments (6)
Thanks all! I believe I was sent the wrong viburnum, but that’s okay. I’ve been plant shopping in my yard to id plants and shrubs that can tolerate a sunny bed by the garage that consists of heavy clay soil and is constantly wet, ranging from moist to water percolating up when you step on the ground. It seems like a good candidate for that spot. I dug up the lawn in that area about 4 years ago when we bought the house to establish a small wild flower bed (approx. 14’x 28’)). All was well for the first 2 years, then the spring rains began to be consistently torrential. For the most part, the wild flowers died except for yarrow and black eyed susan. Last year, I kind of gave up (my big project then was lawn renovation (had 75% weeds), trying to restore the understory of the woodland surrounding the lawn and screening out the view of neighbor’s heavy equipment graveyard with various shrubs including the viburnum oculus — there’s only so much you can do in a season!) and dumped a load of arborist wood chips on the front half of the bed and let the yarrow and black eyed susans run amok in the other half. This year’s primary project was to repurpose shrubs that were simply in the wrong place - they were fine for the first couple of years (I know this because we bought the place from our friends) but they were out of hand by the time we took over. My plan was to begin moving shrubs in March to take advantage of spring rains, but due to a serious illness in the family, I was not able to begin until mid-May. Now that it’s June and the rainy season is largely over, I thought focusing on the wet area would be practical. I put a couple of spirea in the moist section (Anthony Waterers) of the bed, but it seemed too wet for them (die back, yellowing leaves) so I moved them elsewhere. I think the viburnum oculus might be happy there. I also put in a Salix integra Hakuro Nishiki last weekend; I’ll be able to check its progress this weekend. I think some viburnum are difficult to id even when they have flowers. A friend gave me some viburnum babies from some shrubs that were there when she bought her house. She didn’t know what they were so I asked her to send a picture when they flowered. I think they might be Viburnum plicatum tomentosum ‘Mariesii’.
...See More
wisconsitom
Original Author
8 years ago
Woods, et al, the very person referenced above sent me an email this morning, more or less urging me not to back away from planting this fine shrub. His reasoning-something I'd already considered-is the ease of control of this insect when on just a few plants. So, even though I do virtually no actual landscape maintenance in my job these days, it would not be unreasonable that a brief inspection or two in fall, winter, or early spring, to look for the "egg caps" on the twig ends could easily be managed. Think I'm going to go with my initial impulse, in that this group of plants is really the right one to go with the other items I have selected for this job. Even just applying Tanglefoot to the lower stems would completely block reinfestation should it occur, the larvae not dropping to the ground to pupate as so many insects do, but rather, crawling down the trunk, so to speak, to get to ground. That really suggests a simple management regime. Yeah!

+oM
Liz
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I am in central New Jersey, and the beetle has shown up in New York State, but I have gone ahead and planted Arrowwood. There are only two in my backyard, plus two viburnum nudum. So far so good, and I figure I can do control as you suggest in the wintertime if the beetles show up.

The variety deamii is very pretty, with larger glossy leaves.
wisconsitom
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks Liz. I like that one too (deamii) but am purposely limiting my choices to easily-sourced plants this go-round. I have other projects where I can satisfy my lust for the more unusual.

I've had a rather amazing range of responses to more or less this same query when talking directly to some of my state's leading experts, all the way from 'I would absolutely not " be planting AWVs to 'go ahead and plant them, VLB is easy to control'.........the latter from our state entomologist whom I referenced above. I'm not usually about setting us up for a later hardship, but this planting is small, discreet, and honestly, I think we've got at least a few years before that menace makes itself known here. And e ven then, I should be able to manage. In case you can't tell, I really like AWV!

+oM

Arrowwood Viburnum Anyone?

Comments (5)

WoodsTea 6a MO

wisconsitom
Original Author

Related Discussions

wisconsitom
Original Author

Liz

wisconsitom
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Arrowwood Viburnum Anyone?

Comments (5)

WoodsTea 6a MO

wisconsitomOriginal Author

Related Discussions

wisconsitomOriginal Author

Liz

wisconsitomOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

wisconsitom
Original Author

wisconsitom
Original Author

wisconsitom
Original Author