We planted one (in one of our parks) that looks exactly like yours - flower "stalks" have been present for a while but no flowers open yet. Perhaps these are the late flowering type?

For me, it's been a quirky year for all blooming things. Stuff that bloomed like crazy for years and years have hardly put out any blooms, while things that struggled in past years are blooming well. If anyone knows the secret, I'm interested.

Those look perfectly fine and healthy to me. I'm in @arbordave (SE MI)'s camp; they may just be genetic variants or possibly the Aesculus parviflora var. serotina version, which starts blooming for me as the species' flowers are fading.

Thank you for the replies!

tozmo1, yes, it certainly has been a weird year for me also, weather-wise, here in SE Michigan, so who knows what’s going on.

arbordave, that is so interesting that you have a BB in a similar state as mine. I think given the upright shape of the stalks that it’s just a regular BB? I think the Rogers kind has droopier flowers, but I’m not sure. Here is what my other BBs look like, they’re so cute, I love these shrubs!

I was at the UMich Matthaei gardens yesterday and they have some massive BBs, but I didn’t get any photos. Anyway, here is a flower on one of my other shrubs.

ViburnumValley, thank you, I hope that’s the case! I am a bit worried that they suffered some frost-freeze damage, but the ”stalks” look normal and are not damaged in any way.

If you knew the origin of your plants, it might be interesting and possible to follow their heritage back. If they were seed grown, where were the seeds collected? It would be easy to mix seed collected from a lot of plants (such as at an arboretum or botanic garden) and end up with both "styles" being sold together.

Similarly, if these were cutting propagated, someone collecting the cuttings that didn't worry about specific provenance could easily have done exactly the same thing as with seed collection.

The myriad individuals around Viburnum Valley are almost all grown from seed I collected, back when this plant was not readily available on the market. It is easy to notice that all the species plants do not start opening bloom together, which makes for a longer bloom season - but might be annoying to those who like symmetry or uniformity in a mass planting.

Here is an example at the Valley: seedling plants installed at the same time in a mass, and in the same lighting/exposure/soils/moisture regime, from 7/3/2022 image.

Plants on the left: "We're still open! All pollinators welcome!"

Plants on the right: "SOLD OUT - Closed for the season."

ViburnumValley, I have no idea of the history of these shrubs; they’re uncommon at nurseries in Michigan, and I had to hire a landscape contractor to get them for me from a professionals-only nursery center. All I know is that they were in 5 gallon containers and they all had the same tags; unfortunately, I didn’t even get one of the tags, as the landscapers took all the ”rubbish” away with them when they left, so I’ll never know where they originated from.

If this one shrub ends up being a late-bloomer, I’ll come back and post pics. Thank you!

You are welcome to share the name of the professionals-only nursery center, or the landscape contractor. There are such professionals on this forum who could contact them and ask these kinds of questions - and quite possibly find that answer. Maybe not, but I'm interested. Folks like @arbordave (SE MI) may even be a patron of such a place.

Easiest is to contact the contractor you paid for installing these plants. They should be able to find this out for you, especially if they value future business with satisfied clients. At the very least they could tell you who supplied those relatively uncommon plants (by the name tags) to the nursery center.

Any gardener should be interested in this kind of base information, especially with long term plants like woody trees and shrubs. The learning can be tremendous, and valuable.

Thanks, VV! The shrubs came from Christensens Plant Center in Plymouth, MI, for anyone who is interested.

It's possible that Christensens didn't grow the plants themselves but obtained them from a separate wholesale grower (maybe out of state), so it's probably going to be difficult tracking down the original seed source or parent plant(s).

I just wanted to post an update - they finally bloomed! It’ll be interesting to see if they’re a few weeks behind the other BBs next year as well.

Thanks for the update.

tj

Mine's blooming right now too, seems later than some others have mentioned.

Success!

My Aesculus parviflora var. serotina are wrapping up. Lots of warm weather and pollinating activity followed by recent rains have polished off their ornamental characteristics. Now, with some successive moisture conditions, there should be ample seed maturing into September here at the Valley.

VV, my single bottlebrush usually makes a couple large "buckeyes". I plant them, but none have ever come up. Prb'ly not viable because of lack of cross-pollination.

And here's our lone plant (8/1/22). I'm trying hard to be patient ...

Oh @arbordave (SE MI), yours really is taking its time, isn’t it? But it looks like it‘s well on its way…mine shown above looked like that for about a week before the blooms completely opened up. Can you please post another pic when it’s fully in bloom?

Absolutely, hopefully including a pollinator or two ;)

Rogers variety

Interesting, @deltaohioz5!! i thought ”Rogers” had drooping panicles? That specimen is spectacular!

Not for me. It flowers in early July. I grow three varieties. The other two varieties are flowering now. I like Rogers variety the best.

Ours is finally blooming nicely (nicely for a new plant just planted last fall). Honeybees and a few wasps were visiting the flowers. A few of the panicles haven't opened yet. 8/10/22

Yay! Very nice, @arbordave (SE MI)…it’ll be interesting to see when our shrubs will bloom next year. Out of my five shrubs, three bloomed in unison, one bloomed later (shown above) and one didn’t bloom at all. Mine were in five gallon containers when purchased - yours looks larger than mine, my largest shrub had only five blooms.

@lovemycorgi z5b SE michigan: note the difference in the length (or height) of the blooms between your early birds vs. johnny come lately. For me, that is another reliable indicator of A. parviflora vs. A. p. var. serotina.

The late one always has longer-sized blooms.

Yours look like theyre in pretty deep shade yet are blooming lushly. Do you fertilze? Irrigate? Mine aren’t nearly as full.

@ViburnumValley central KY Bluegrass z6, thank you, I’ll have to pay closer attention to that; several of the bloom stalks were nibbled on, so it’s hard for me to compare bloom lengths. I will definitely check that out!

@kitasei2, yes, they’re in very deep shade; one side of the bed gets some morning sun, but the other side hardly gets any…but they still bloom fairly well, I think, and have grown nicely. A couple of them were sad little things when first planted. I don’t fertilize, but I do water deeply, at least once a week…maybe try watering more frequently? Mine get hit by the sprinklers every other day also.