Several years ago I removed one, when it reached about 8 feet tall and wide; it was also labelled at 4 to 5 feet. Nice shrub, but too big for the areas where I'd planted it.

Thanks for your reply. I hate it when labels have the wrong sizes for plants! Do you know how long it took your "Summer Snowflake" to get 8 ft tall and wide? Mine is about 2 ft tall and wide now. Did you try to prune it before you got rid of it?

Thanks again,

Juliet

I think I had it for 6 or 8 years, but I'm not sure. My mother had bought one at the same nursery, at the same time, and hers was oversized too.

Is it POSSIBLE that they're grafted and the rootstock determines the eventual size of the shrub?

I'm not a pruner, especially not interested in "pruning for size," so, although I removed a few stray branches for awhile, I did not try to prune it very seriously. My mom, on the other hand, pruned hers for a few years before deciding that it was just too big.
If I were you, I'd talk to the people at the nursery where you bought it before planting it. If I'd known the size mine would reach, I could have planted it in another area. They do not like to be moved, at least that's what I've read.

Then again, yours may be a smaller one - I certainly have seen small doublefiles that don't look like they're being hacked up annually.

Thanks for your help. I am going to put "Summer Snowflake" in a different spot where it will have more room. After more searching, I found a website that said pruning this shrub can ruin its structure. Here's a picture I found of "Summer Snowflake" at Dave's Garden. It was taken in my general region and it looks more than 5' tall to me.

Juliet

Here is a link that might be useful: Summer Snowflake viburnum

For a picture of them at UBC that may be amusing...

Here is a link that might be useful: Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum 'Summer Snowflake' - UBC Botanical Garden Forums

Wow, bboy, that's spooky.

Walked by three today at Edmonds Community College, Lynnwood, WA. Easily 7 feet tall, maybe one was even 8 feet. And they are still growing taller, of course. Shrubs don't read descriptions that say they have a maximum height.

I've had mine for 6 or 7 years. Started out as a 3-gallon plant, AND I transplanted it to my new home about three years ago. So, it had to go through the shock and recovery from that. It didn't grow all that much at my previous place, but has really taken off at my new one. It's about 7 feet tall now and still going upwards! LOL. It's a nice plant, although I'll admit that I really fell in love with it at the nursery, where it was blooming and had wine-red foliage at the same time. Mine has never displayed that rich Fall foliage in the ground, but it's not unusual for plants to show weak Fall color down here in Alabama.

The one I planted 13 years ago got about 15 feet tall and only about 5-6 feet wide - It was still growing taller and not adding any width. Amazing blooms with the first flowering and still really nice the remainder of summer. Pruning does ruin the structure. We had a bad drought and the shrub made it but lost some limbs that I pruned back. No growth to cover it. It just looked like some more open space between branches - thankfully, the way it died selectively choose what branches to have die off, resulted in a very beautiful shrub even after pruning, but significantly fewer flowers. As you can see from the photos from one year to the next. The top photo is the shrub post pruning due to drought) and lower photo is the year prior - what it looked like every year up to then.