I'm drawn to the evergreen varieties. I have V. awabuki 'Chindo', V. davidii, V. 'Conoy', and V. cinnamomifolium. We'll see how they all do this winter!

Layneev,
I can picture your beautiful plants. The best part about most viburnums is the three seasons of interest. My newest additions are Doublefiles, Mariesi (sp?). Great red/purple fall color and a few berries on plants barely one year old. Significant growth in year one.

Korean Spice, Burkwood and Judd are all getting yellow fall color during our first significant freeze this week. Burkwood is nearly 10' and will have to be pruned next spring after blooming. I'm imagining the fragrance from these big shrubs next spring.

The Alleghany leatherleaf viburnums may be my favorites. The plants are so sturdy and bold as specimens. The big, wrinkled, dark green leafs draw comments from everyone. The plants began producing larger crops of berries this season. One has reached 7' and doesn't seem likely to slow down.

My two Winterthur's declined and died this year. One I had grown from a sucker.

I just bought the Dirr book on viburnums so DW can give it to me for Christmas. Very hard to keep from peeking.

Are there any small viburnums? I have a landscape project which needs some shrubs.

Dirr's book on viburnums is fabulous. Great pictures from several different seasons for each plant. I really only like native viburnums and the book is worth it just for the information on those.

There are some small-ER viburnum cultivars for natives (like 'Blue Muffin' and 'Little Joe' for V. dentatum), but even they are not small. You might want to check the size on V. davidii.

Layneev, I can't believe your Winterthur turned yellow! My v. nudum always turn red/wine colored. I do love the foliage on that species.

Although I loved my now lost Winterthur Viburnums, I do not miss the fragrance of the blooms. Nasty!

I'd have a more than a few suspicions about a 'Winterthur' that only turned a yellow fall color. It should really have red-purple-burgundies, with maybe some yellow background noise.

For small viburnums, you should think compact or a slower growth rate, but be prepared to prune at some point in time.

A couple that are reliable in this regard:

ÂViburnum x 'Conoy' is an evergreen
ÂViburnum carlesii 'Compactum' is deciduous

There are a number of compact Viburnum dentatum. Little Joe was mentioned above. There are also:

ÂBlue BlazeÂ
ÂPapooseÂ
ÂRaspberry TartÂ
ÂVanilla CupcakesÂ

ÂViburnum sargentii 'Chiquita' is also compact.

It's like dinner all of a sudden...

Hmmm, possibly a Winterthur impostor!! You know, when those viburnums and some other plants were delivered last year I remember wondering out loud with the guy who delivered them if the labels might have gotten jumbled. I'd had a problem the year before with a boxwood or two that didn't really look like the ones I'd ordered (or like the other ones they were supposed to match up with in a hedge!) But the source insisted these were indeed the correct ones. I joked with them I was thinking about ordering a DNA test!

I'm going to go right out and look at the remaining leaves on what I think is my Winterthur and see if I can make out any other shades. It's really quite a lovely shrub, though, and in every other respect looks pretty much like what I THOUGHT a Winterthur should look like, so I"m not too worried about it. But it's very interesting to hear what characteristics it really OUGHT to have. And I love hearing about everybody else's viburnums! And some really good information to print out for my very fat viburnum file, as always.

Would a Burkwood be mostly yellow fall color? Maybe the labels really were mixed up, and the Winterthur is the one that had the shiny burgundy red leaves. (I'm not going to be too quick to blame the labels, though. Usually if there's a mix-up in my garden, my first bet is on ME as the mixed up one:)) I'm sure if any of you were here you could sort it out instantly! Like I said, though, they're all beautiful so it will be a pleasure to watch them next year and make certain of their identities. Thanks for the help! Stay warm, everybody, and happy Thanksgiving!

layneev:

Short of a picture or two, I'm not going to hazard guessing at this year's fall color to sort out your plants.

A really good definitive separator that you might draw from memory: sweetly fragrant flowers would be found on Viburnum x burkwoodii, but not 'Summer Snowflake' or 'Winterthur'. Also, bloom sequence would follow the order I've written here, and 'Summer Snowflake' would be the only repeat bloomer (and lacecap flower type).

A lot of factors can enter into variability of performance, including what your fall color experience might be. I only remark on what 'Winterthur' is supposed to do, and what it does for most gardeners that I've heard comment about it.

Viburnum nudum 'Winterthur' does great for me but it will yellow if the pH is too high. Nudum is a plant for acidic soils. The cultivar Brandywine is prefered over Winterthur because it will set fruit without a second clone to act as a pollinator. I love the glossy foliage, pink and blue fruit and the rich burgundy fall color!

Oh, those Summer Snowflakes! I love them! In this part of CT, they bloom from mid-spring till late fall, only resting when the temps get above 90 or so. I love the shape of the plant--- much more upright than the other double file Viburnums, but still with that beautiful horizontal branching.

The sight of them the morning after that first snowfall last week just took my breath away.

The Shasta Viburnum is beautiful all four seasons long, and is my absolute favorite of all the Viburnums. However, because they require a great deal of water, and we are in an area with very low yield wells, I transplanted mine several years ago to a friend's yard where water is not an issue. In that setting, they are thriving, and do not have that "thirsty" look that they had in our yard all through August.

I have yet to meet a Viburnum that I do not love. They lend such grace to the landscape.