Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: viburnum plicatum mariesii, 1 by ViburnumValley

ViburnumValley wrote:
Fine photo -- I know you'll enjoy this excellent witch hazel.

San Anselmo...what a nice little town. This is where we stayed on our 10th anniversary, which was my first time to the Bay area. May get back out there this fall for the ASLA conference.

Take a read through this thread, if you can stay awake: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/568744/

You have the gist of the issue in hand though: a couple different doublefile viburnums produce the best results in terms of cross-pollination and thus fabulous fruit. You can get some/little fruit on a doublefile by itself, but most gardeners find the production from cross-pollination to be their preference.

If you have 'Shoshoni', then most any other V. plicatum var. tomentosum with fertile flowers will work. You have to decide what you have room for (your home page shows a relatively reserved site). Among the candidates could be:

Large plants

'Shasta'
'Mariesii'
'Lanarth'
'St. Keverne'
'Pink Beauty'

Smaller plants

'Dart's Red Robin'
'Fireworks'
'Summer Snowflake'

In my observations, NONE of the true lacecap V. plicatum var. tomentosum are small. There are some fine compact snowball V. plicatum types, but they have few/none fertile flowers in the "snowball" of showy sterile flowers, and are not good choices for cross-pollination to achieve full fruiting.

If you get to look at the plant you are buying, check for short/shorter internodes (distance between buds along the stems) for an estimate of how fast or slow the plant is growing. Here's a picture (not the clearest) of a row of 'Shasta' to the left of a row of slightly later blooming 'Shoshoni' that illustrates the differing densities of a larger vs. smaller doublefile viburnum growing in the same full sun central KY conditions.