Sure looks like a Viburnum, maybe Viburnum rhytidophyllum -- a little late flowering ???

Yes viburnum ... the weather's been a bit weird, perhaps that is why it is late?

Hm, that viburnum is supposed to bloom in May in my area; three months late though??

I guess I will wait and see what kind of berries it produces (if it will have time to do so).

it is unusual but sometimes flowering shrubs and trees will have a second season of flowering. Usually a response to something in the environment.

Leather-leaf viburnum. Avoid the hairs, they are irritating.

google: rejuvenatory pruning of flowering shrubs...

and get after this thing ...

and if you find its a losing battle.. get rid of it ... since you did not plant it ...

as to the prior owner.. for all we know.. they bought a cute little babe.. because it fit in the spot.. as it was ... never conceptualizing the vast and unbridled potential it might have ..

so once you get a full ID... especially as to size ... then just get rid of it.. if it was a mistake ..

there is no rule that you have to live with a prior owners mistakes .. i mean really.. i presume you repainted the paisley kitchen.. lol

if you want an ID.. you are probably going to need a few more pix.. and look inside.. and see if there is any nursery tag still on it ...

ken

Ken, this plant has already been ID'd three times.......how many more times do you think is necessary? :-))

No question about it. You have the proper ID.

It's a nice plant. Perhaps you might move it to a location where you want a larger shrub. You don't have to get rid of things if you like them.

Long growths and large size typical for this shrub. I've been hired a couple times to prune on a property that had some older ones that I could barely reach to the top of from a ladder, with a pole pruner. If it were my place I would have just left them alone but the owners wanted to see beyond them, to a harbor view.

Sorry for the long hiatus, I am still dealing with the nightmare renovation of the Money Pit From Hell (housewise).

As a followup to this mystery shrub/viburnum, it began fruiting in October; red berries maturing to black. It also kept opening new flower buds. At this point in time (2 days after Xmas) we have had two snowstorms and multiple hard freezes; however this thing is still hanging on to more than 50% of its leaves, although many look the worse for wear. Some of the buds were blasted by the ice and snow but other are still opening flowers and producing berries. A few current pics as of this week are below.

I did check leatherleaf viburnum but as with all the other viburnums, it is supposed to bloom in the spring and begin setting berries in June... not October. Apparantly this one has not read the literature. The Missouri Botanical Garden site does mention that it is evergreen in the south "but at best semi-evergreen in the St Louis area" so it does make sense that in our Northeast-but-maritime location it would behave somewhere in between evergreen and "semi". All of the other characteristics except for bloom time do match leatherleaf viburnum though.

Same site advises "If shrub loses good form or needs revitalization, prune to the ground. Otherwise, prune immediately after flowering since flower buds form in summer for the following year." Apparantly this one decided not to wait until Spring 2014 to open those formed-in-summer flower buds.

I'm going to have to re-side the house next autumn anyway, so that sounds like a good time to do the more drastic cutting back.

Current flowering clusters (and yes that's snow in the background of the previous photo, LOL)

Hi there,
I think, V rhytidophyllus is not it, the ones I know tend to have leaves that are more narrow and have different proportions. Plus, even in summer the long narrow leaves tend to hang down.

On the pics the leaves are almost ovalshaped and pointing sideways.

So, I just searched for evergreen V, and there popped up a

V x rhytidophylloides ( the botanist's way to say it almost looks like r...),
And, even better, there is a cultivar that flowers late, Willowwood or willow wood.

I never heard of it before, but it fits much better for me regarding the foliage and would solve the awkward issue of the 'wrongly timed flowers'.

What do you think?

A nice holiday to you all, bye, Lin

Here is a link that might be useful: Viburnum x rhytidophylloides

Yes, the later pictures definitely show hybrid foliage - if the first ones did not as well. The off season flowering is not that unusual and definitely does not take away from the identification.

linaria, I think you have hit on the right identification! :-) Especially since your link notes that a second bloom may occur in the fall (I saw the house first in March but didn't see it again until early July, and so I missed seeing any spring blooming).

Dave's Garden also notes for this plant under Bloom Time "Mid spring, Late spring/Early summer, Blooms repeatedly".

What confused the heck out of me was that there was no evidence of fruit-set from an earlier flowering (in other words if it did flower in spring, I saw no evidence of berry formation in June, July, August ... nothing until October) so naturally I assumed the summer bloom was its' one-and-only, LOL

Many thanks for solving the mystery! I'm sure that as we go into the spring and early summer months I will be trying to identify other shrubs as they come into flower...

Glad you got it I.D.'ed. It looks pretty cool to me. I have an azelea blooming now that shouldn't bloom until spring. It happened because we had a very warm December. Was the bloom fragrant? It looks like something they used for hedges sometimes in Vero Beach. It had spots on the bottom of the leaves.