back when i was a kid .. we had a 'snowball' bush.. i have no clue what it actually was ...

i believe this is a common name ... and finding actual latin names.. may help avoid the common name trap ...

all i recall .. is by the time i could dig out huge overgrown shrubs ... this thing was taking over half the small backyard ... and i was told to take car if it ... the things i would do with pent up energy.. and food as payment,.. lol ...

they have vast potential: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=Snowball+Viburnum&iax=images&ia=images

now.. all that said .. if you have repeatedly failed with Vs ... why are you still working on a hope and a prayer that you will win this time .. the world is filled with plants that wont give you teh misery youve already had with this family .. crikey.. move on ... lol

ken

It may be locational. I have never encountered any issues with any viburnums other a couple of random cases of Verticillum wilt. No viburnum leaf beetles, no leaf spots, etc. And I use them a lot in my designs and all kinds of viburnum species.

There are 3 different kinds of "snowball" viburnum so you might want to investigate them all to see if one is a stronger performer in your area than the others. American snowball (Viburnum opulus), Japanese snowball (Viburnum plicatum) and Chinese snowball (Viburnum macrocephalum).

PM2, let's catch up on this topic at some point when we talk. I have a number of viburnums in the garden in all shapes and sizes, and we might be able to figure out together what type might work best for your spot. Some have bloomed already (nice and early for us!), and some are just blooming now. I've never had any problems with them. The only one I had issues with was 'Blue Muffin' which was a Japanese beetle magnet so I ripped it out rather quickly. Can't wait to hear where you're thinking of putting one!

Thanks for all the input. I gave it more thought and I think I am agreeing with Ken. I have tried at least 5 different Viburnums. I really like them, but each one of them has had enough of a problem to be very disappointing to me. I really dislike the ugly foliage on my Viburnum carlesii right now. I cut it severely two years ago due to that issue. Hoped it might grow back in better. Waited for bloom again until this year and after it bloomed, right back to the same issue.

I did the same thing with 'Wentworth'. A great shrub otherwise. It was covered from head to toe of all 10 feet of it, with riddled foliage from bugs. I cut that back to the ground and this year, it's 2nd year, it is again about 4ft high and looked healthy for all of April but now in May, the same riddled foliage is showing up again.

I've removed all of the other Viburnum's in my garden, so it may be my location.

Thanks Thyme2dig - I think I am going to switch to something else. I'd rather have a more boring but healthy shrub than an exciting shrub with ugly half eaten foliage. [g]. Clearly you don't have issues with yours, and they do well for many other gardeners, I just think I am kidding myself that any of them will do well for me.

I need a specimen shrub, because the location I want to put it is in line with my gate. It will be the first thing we see as we open the gate to the back about 30ft from the gate. It's in half a day of sun. It will be backed by a mature Taxus that is about 10ft tall and a nice dark green. I'm considering using one of the Hydrangea paniculata as an alternative to the Viburnums. Any other suggestions?

Thanks, for that photo and for your experiences. I don't have a lot of trouble here with Japanese beetles later in the season. Very pretty shrub. :-).

I love my viburnums, and Nantucket is practically evergreen here in zone 6b, but the virtue of hydrangeas is the flowers continue to be attractive long after theyve finished blooming, whereas that stunning v. plicataum above will be a green blob most of the time. I recommend a nice H. paniculata.

kitase12 - I'm thinking the same. Some plants I love are very quick to finish blooming and do very little the rest of the season. At least with some Viburnums you do get the fall color, which I love. And you do need background players for the more showy plants. But I have a small 1/4 acre property and it makes a difference. Every plant has to contribute to get the experience you want. I stopped growing peonies because they would drop their petals in a heavy rain and some years I got 4 days of bloom. [g]. Baptisia...I love and I enjoy both the blooms and the seed pods, but they are a large plant and take up a lot of room if they are green all summer and fall. I just noticed the bloom on Purple Smoke is finishing already and developing pods, and it just opened bloom a week ago.

I garden organically too and often there is an alternative way to deal with a pest, but the Viburnum beetle, has not had one that succeeded. I had a winter moth infestation in all my trees, Maples, Japanese Maples. Six years of it and it just about defoliated the trees a couple of times. There are a lot of dead branches up in the canopy of some. I just let it run it's course and hoped for the best. The University of MA worked on a project for finding a parasite for the winter moths. All of a sudden two years ago, no winter moths. My trees this year and last are pristine. The same thing with the Red Lily Leaf Beetle that I would make the rounds hand picking every morning and stopped trying to grow lilies for awhile. They have now disappeared in my garden for the same reason, a lab at a university fixed the problem. It would be great if someone could work on the Viburnum pests. :-)

Hydrangea paniculate are my new interest. I have tried growing the Mopheads for a good 10 years and there are too many years that I don't see a bloom and when I do, I only get a handful. I prefer the white/green blooms with a touch of rose over the blue anyway, so it makes sense to make the switch to the paniculatas. I also like to dry the blooms for arrangements in the house. I bought two Little Lime two years ago and I love them. In a mixed bed with roses and other perennials. I like the firm stems that hold the blooms up. I think I will look for a larger version of the Little Lime maybe for this location instead of the viburnum. I haven't taken the time to see what other varieties there are.

We were walking through some community gardens in Boston a few weeks ago and we saw a few gorgeous Snowball Viburnums. Very healthy looking mature specimens. That's what gave me the idea, but I'll just have to enjoy them in someone else's garden. :-)