mohawk for fragrance ...

varigated for a nice muted coloration ...

ken

Scent is a pretty subjective sense :-) My favorite for this attribute is Viburnum x juddii but there are many different viburnums with great scent and certainly worth adding one or two to the selection. And some can smell pretty funky when in bloom, too!

You might want to visit your local library and get hold of Viburnums: Flowering Shrubs for Every Season by Michael Dirr. This will tell you everything you want to know about viburnums and with lots of great photos to illustrate. I also wouldn't be without some sort of doublefile viburnum in my garden as they are absolutely stunning when in bloom and I think the showiest of the bunch.

As to fruiting......you don't necessarily need more than one in order to produce fruit but fruiting will be heavier if there is cross pollination between two different clones. And some sterile forms will never produce fruit. One of our GW members started a great thread that addressed this very subject -- worth a good read.

Here is a link that might be useful: Viburnum pollination thread

Doublefile to be sure, and over the years I've come like Viburnum cassinoides. It has bronze new foliage, decent fall color and berries that go from pink to black.

tj

Here is a link that might be useful: Go with a worthy witherod

If fruit is a requirement, doublefile and most fragrant viburnums aren't heavy setters for me. Though I wouldn't be without them. There's a new narrow columnar doublefile hitting the market that I'm excited to get a hold of. for good crops of reliable fruit- V. trilobum (magnet for viburnum borer), V. cassinoides, V. dentatum, V. lentago (can have problems with mildew though), V. nudum and a slew of others. I'm personally not big on planting rows of any one thing, mixed shrub borders are the way to go. Especially with viburnum borer being such a problem here now, if one gets it they all get it.

The Plant Geek
www.confessionsofaplantgeek.blogspot.com

Viburnam borer? I hadn't heard about that. Hmmmmmm? Maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea to plant viburnams then. I thought viburnams to be relatively carefree but now I am wondering if there is another type of shrub or small tree to draw birds that would be better.Can anyone tell me if viburnams are poisonous to animals? My daughter has horses and goats that occaisionally get out. :)

Thank you all for all of the information. I appreciate it.
aunt lou

I wouldn't avoid viburnums entirely, just don't plant a whole row of them. I had a V. prunifolium get attacked by the borers but they left my doublefile and cassinoides alone. The cassinoides was quite a distance away but the doublefile was only 20 feet away.

tj

In some areas the real spoiler now is viburnum leaf beetle.

Does anyone here grow snowball viburnum (AKA viburnum opulus 'roseum')??

Here's a link to a pic:

http://myfantasticlife.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/viburnum_snowball.jpg