Viburnums: a shrub for every season

Daniel Platteau

In short: with viburnums, you can have a shrub in flower almost all year round: winter viburnum scents the garden from October to April, the spring viburnums (V. carlesii, V. × burkwoodii) are fragrant in April and May, the Japanese snowball and the snowball tree put on a show in May and June, and the guelder rose offers its red berries to birds in autumn. Two viburnums are native to Belgium. Most are hardy, easy and need little pruning.

Few groups of shrubs offer so much variety. There are evergreen and deciduous viburnums, small and large, with scented flowers or ornamental berries, for sun or partial shade. You still need to find your way among the names. Here are the viburnums that matter for a Belgian garden, season by season.

More than 150 species, two of them Belgian

The genus Viburnum has more than 150 species worldwide, mainly in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Long placed in the honeysuckle family, then in the Adoxaceae, viburnums now belong to the Viburnaceae family, like elders.

Two viburnums are native to Wallonia, as the brochure Année de la viorne, published by the Walloon Region for Tree Week 2017, points out:

• the guelder rose (Viburnum opulus), which likes moist to damp, humus-rich soils. It reaches about 4 m. Its large white sterile flowers, ringed around the small fertile flowers, attract pollinators. Its red berries stay on the shrub in winter and feed thrushes and warblers;
• the wayfaring tree (Viburnum lantana), which prefers dry, chalky soils and sunny woodland edges. It can reach 6 m. Its flowers are scented and its fruits are two-coloured, red then black.

The Walloon dialect names of these shrubs say a lot about their place in rural life: the guelder rose was called bwas d'macrale, "witch's wood", in some places, and the wayfaring tree matonî or mazoke. Their supple stems were used to tie bundles of firewood and to weave baskets.

A viburnum for every season

The RHS rates a plant H6 when it withstands −15 to −20 °C: this applies to most deciduous viburnums, which are hardy everywhere in Belgium. Laurustinus, rated H4 (−5 to −10 °C), is more delicate: it does well in towns and mild areas, but is best avoided in frost pockets and in the Ardennes.

Japanese snowball, the "architectural" shrub

Viburnum plicatum, from East Asia, is probably the most architectural of the viburnums. Its branches are tiered horizontally, like shelves. In spring, broad flat flowerheads line up in double rows along the top of the branches: small fertile flowers in the centre, surrounded by large white sterile flowers, rather like a lacecap hydrangea. In autumn, its pleated foliage turns purple. The selection 'Mariesii' is named after the plant collector Charles Maries, who gathered it in Japan between 1877 and 1879 for the English nursery Veitch.

The team behind the French channel ART - Le pouvoir des plantes followed one plant for a full year, from April flowering to autumn colour:

Their advice is sound: plant in autumn or spring, in sun or partial shade, in rather neutral soil enriched with compost on chalk, and with almost no pruning. Two figures deserve a clarification: the genus has more than 150 species (the video says more than 200, a high estimate), and the RHS H6 rating does indeed correspond to frosts of around −15 to −20 °C.

Winter viburnums

Winter viburnum (V. × bodnantense) is a hybrid raised in 1935 at Bodnant Garden in Wales, after which it is named. On its bare stems, clusters of very fragrant pink flowers open in mild spells from autumn to spring; the RHS notes that 'Deben' often flowers from October to April, and that the flowers of 'Dawn' tolerate frost. A cut sprig scents a whole room. One limitation: in very wet, cold winters, the flowers can turn brown and rot. Plant it near a path or a door to enjoy the scent. We include it among the winter-flowering shrubs in December in the garden.

Laurustinus (V. tinus), from the Mediterranean region, is evergreen and flowers from late winter into spring. It makes a good dense hedge. Its metallic blue berries are ornamental, but the RHS states that they are not to be eaten.

Planting and caring for a viburnum

When to plant? Deciduous viburnums from autumn to early spring, when the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged. Evergreens preferably in early spring or autumn. For a hedge of guelder rose or wayfaring tree, the Walloon brochure recommends bare-root plants in autumn.

Where? Most viburnums like an open, sunny position. Winter viburnum tolerates partial shade, as do V. davidii and V. rhytidophyllum. The guelder rose enjoys moist soils, the wayfaring tree dry, chalky ground.

Should you prune? It depends on the species, according to the RHS:

Evergreens are pruned in spring, once the frosts are over; deciduous types during dormancy. Before pruning in spring or early summer, check that no birds are nesting.

Berries for the birds, not for us

Many viburnums bear very ornamental red, blue or black fruits, valuable for birds in winter. For a good crop, the RHS advises planting at least two viburnums of the same species to ensure cross-pollination. Snowball trees, whose flowers are all sterile, produce no berries.

For people, caution is called for. The RHS states that laurustinus berries are not to be eaten. The Lille poison centre lists the guelder rose as slightly toxic, but notes that its green fruits are laxative. In Scandinavia, guelder rose berries are nevertheless eaten mixed with honey or flour. Keep to a simple rule: in the garden, viburnum berries are for the birds, and children don't touch them.

A pest to know: the viburnum beetle

If the leaves of your laurustinus or guelder rose are riddled with holes in spring, to the point of looking like lace, it is probably the viburnum beetle (Pyrrhalta viburni), a small leaf beetle. According to the RHS, most of the damage is done by the larvae, from late April to June; the greyish-brown adults eat a little more foliage from late July to September. The females lay their eggs in young shoots, where they overwinter.

The RHS recommends tolerating the insect where possible, as viburnums usually recover from defoliation, picking off the larvae by hand and encouraging the birds and ground beetles that eat them. It advises against pesticides, which also kill natural enemies. The most affected viburnums are laurustinus, guelder rose and wayfaring tree. Japanese snowball, winter viburnum and Korean spice viburnum are among the species the University of Maryland recommends as resistant.

Propagating viburnums

Viburnums are easy to grow from cuttings, using three methods described by the RHS:

• hardwood cuttings, from late autumn to winter, after leaf fall: pencil-thick lengths of 10 to 15 cm, for deciduous viburnums such as winter viburnum and guelder rose. This is the simplest method, and now is the season;
• semi-ripe cuttings, from mid-summer to autumn, for laurustinus, V. davidii or V. × burkwoodii;
• softwood cuttings, from late spring to mid-summer, for V. carlesii and V. × carlcephalum.

The Walloon brochure adds layering in spring and sowing ripe fruit.

Viburnums in a hedge

Guelder rose and wayfaring tree have their place in a native hedge, alongside hawthorn, hazel or blackthorn. They take pruning well, feed insects and birds, and are planted bare-root from November to March. In Wallonia, a living hedge of native species can be subsidised: all the details are in November in the garden.

Sources

ART - Le pouvoir des plantes. (2026, 30 October). Viburnum plicatum : l'arbuste graphique qui transforme un jardin ! [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zIF18Etric

Choi, K., Yoon, M. J., & Son, D. C. (n.d.). Diversity in the genus Viburnum native to Korea. Acta Horticulturae, 1434, 99-104. https://ishs.org/ishs-article/1434_14/

Gardens Illustrated. (n.d.). Viburnum: the best viburnum to grow and when to prune. https://www.gardensillustrated.com/spring/viburnum-best-prune-care

Lille Poison Control Centre. (2021, 5 January). Viorne obier. CHU de Lille. https://www.cap.chu-lille.fr/2021/01/05/viorne-obier

Oregon State University. (n.d.). Viburnum × bodnantense 'Dawn'. Landscape Plants. https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/plants/viburnum-bodnantense-dawn

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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (n.d.). Viburnaceae Raf. Plants of the World Online. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/77162522-1

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