I don't have the plant tag, so I'm not sure which Viburnum it is.

Regarding VLB, plicatum is actually quite resistant, macrocephalum is moderately susceptible, and opulus is highly susceptible. Your Summer Snowflake is a plicatum, btw.

VLB susceptibility (Cornell University)

I have a small, young one, though I don’t remember which one it is. I’m not sure about the leaf beetle, but mine had several skeletonized leaves this past summer, so perhaps the beetle was the culprit!

The previous winter, deer ate many of the branches, so I only had one lonely snowball bloom this past spring; I’ve already been out spraying with Bobbex to ensure that doesn’t happen again.

If sited well, it seems to be a fairly fast grower.

I had a viburnum in my yard and it was definitely taller that wider. had to remove it because p.o. planted it 5 feet from a cup magnolia tree, but i really hated to do that because it was so pretty in the spring. i plan to buy a couple for my new house.

I have guelder rose in the woods and a slightly struggling xanthocarpum (which might be going on the kill list). Probably fabulous in large wild gardens but less so in smaller, contained areas. The v.opulus is great as part of a wild hedge though, and can be hacked about with no nasty repercussions. I am only just embarking on adventures with shrubbery (cos of lack of space and wildlife predations), so obviously clueless.

While on tooic of viburnum and invasive viburnum leaf beetle (VLB): I have several native virburnum and this year they mercilessly attacked by that horrible beetle that can kill a viburnum in two years if not mitigated. My tiny cranberry viburnums were eaten down to the leaf veins. It was only then i realized the same thing had attacked my ”blue muffin” virburnums.

The leaf damage is easy to ID as the beetles eat a uniform rectangular hole in the leaves.

In that Cornell very helpful link above they tell how to mitigate and I write bc now/fall/winter/before leaf out is a great time to check for eggs in this year’s new stem growth. The beetle deposits eggs and pastes back paler chewed wood leaving again easily IDd rectangular shapes. Easy to see once leaves have fallen. I cut the tips off a blackhaw viburnum, the cranberries, and many stems of my arrowwood viburnums and threw the stems onto a fire. (Satisfying but also obv dont leave discarded egg laden stems in a brush pile etc.) I also got horticultural oil to rub on stems in spring as suggested maybe by the Cornell article or another academic journal. These mechanical methods work better and are obviously ecologically preferable to broader pesticide applications.

PSA 2: Guelder rose (v. opulus/ Roseum/ european cranberry viburnum) is considered invasive in much of the US and hybridizes with our lovely native cranberry virbunum. it is unpalatable to animals and while pretty is not a great choice.

Harder to find the native (and ”native” shrubs are often mislabled accidental hybirds w the European v. opulus—difficult to ID unless you taste the berries or closely examine leaf petioles) so only buy from very careful sources, I just had to yank some I bought online last year—frustrsting waste of $ but fortunately they were too small to flower and hybridize w my natives—but the hedges of invasive v. opulus crowd out our native plants and do not supply food once supplied by natives for songbirds etc.

Forgive highjacking of thread and Im not a natives-only purist —in the case of virburnym youre better getting anither hybrid if you have bad infestation of VLB—by any means but that plant is particularly egregious especially where it is driving the far tastier native cranberry viburnum to dwindling populations.

And the european and American cranberry viburnums are also on the highly susceptible to viburnum leaf beetles list mentioned above.

PSA out. Mostly wrote this for pll who come across these threads in searches as I do—often finding useful info years later. ✌️

Viburnum opulus 'Roseum' is a sterile cultivar and is not going to hybridize with anything!!