Northeast Gardening: Blank slate ideas, 1 by ViburnumValley

ViburnumValley wrote:
After a long time, I gave in to trying Sargent Viburnum. As a close relative of the Cranberrybush Viburnum crowd, I'd assumed it would have their predilections to climate several zones north of me.

I have been pleasantly surprised with the performance of three clones over the past 5 years, though.

I have one plant of 'Chiquita', and half a dozen each of 'Susquehanna' and 'Flavum'. They all look a little weary foliage-wise by summer's end, but they are growing in full sun in a nursery row condition and rare supplemental watering for the last three years. They fruit like mad, and don't seem to have any trouble with growth extensions.

I just got 'Calvescens' this year - it is young plant but flowered and is now setting fruit.

'Chiquita' is an extremely compact and uniform growing little plant. This should be the required pollinating partner for the small landscape.

I expect that I'll move a representative sampling of these plants to a northerly exposure (or at least afternoon shade for our "sultry" summers) to see how they do in a long term landscape setting.

This is 'Flavum' fruit ripening in July 2009.