Products

Deciduous. To 11 feet. Fragrant rose colored flowers in early winter. (See DIR, HRT, F&J)

Some viburnums are grown for the eye and some for the nose; the Burkwood viburnums are firmly the latter. Viburnum x burkwoodii is a cross between the intensely fragrant Viburnum carlesii and the glossy evergreen Viburnum utile, first raised by the brothers Burkwood and their partner Skipwith at their nursery near Kingston-on-Thames in England in 1924. 'Park Farm Hybrid' is a sister seedling from that same celebrated work, selected for a bolder flower and a deeper bud.

Hardiness

Zones 4–8

Light

Full Sun / Part Shade

Height

8–10 ft.

Spread

8–10 ft.

Bloom

White

Plant type

Shrub

Medium to large deciduous shrub with outstanding red flower buds, white flowers have spicy clove fragrance. Brilliant orange-red fall color. Don Egolf selection from U.S. National Arboretum. 1992 Penn. Hort., Gold Medal winnter. Plant in fertile well-drained soil in sunny location.

Hardiness

Zones 5–8

Height

7–10 ft.

Spread

5–6 ft.

Bloom

Orange

A neat, dome-shaped evergreen bred for foliage and form. Viburnum x globosum is a garden hybrid between Viburnum calvum and the well-known Viburnum davidii, and 'Jermyn's Globe' was selected as the best seedling from a batch raised at the celebrated Hillier Nurseries in England around 1964, chosen for the way the plant rounds into a dense, self-shaping globe. The cultivar name honors Hillier's Jermyns arboretum in Hampshire.

Hardiness

Zones 7–9

Light

Part Shade

Height

3–5 ft.

Spread

4–5 ft.

Bloom

White

Plant type

Shrub

A tough, glossy evergreen born of two Chinese parents and a Prague nursery. Viburnum x pragense is the cross of the leatherleaf viburnum, Viburnum rhytidophyllum, with the service viburnum, Viburnum utile, first raised by the plantsman Josef Vik at the Municipal Nurseries of Prague in 1955 and named for the city in 1959. The epithet pragense simply means of Prague, a rare instance of a garden hybrid carrying a birthplace rather than a botanist.

Hardiness

Zones 5–8

Light

Full Sun / Part Shade

Height

10–12 ft.

Spread

10–12 ft.

Bloom

White

Plant type

Shrub

Evergreen shrub which is hybrid between V. rhytidophyllum and V. utile. Fast growing, hardy, and probably better landscape shrub than either parent. Dark green shiny leaves. Slightly fragrant flowers pink in bud opening white in spring. (See DIR)

Hardiness

Zones 5–8

Height

6–10 ft.

Spread

6–10 ft.

The hybrid that earned a name the hard way. Viburnum 'Lord Byron' is a Southern-bred cross of Viburnum obovatum, Walter's viburnum, with Viburnum rufidulum, the rusty blackhaw, created by the plantsman Paul Cox of the San Antonio Botanical Garden and named for his son.

Hardiness

Zones 7–9

Light

Full Sun / Part Shade

Height

8–12 ft.

Spread

6–8 ft.

Bloom

White

Plant type

Shrub

Woodland species. Leafy stems. (See J&F)

Hardiness

Zones 4–8

A Japanese woodlander with large fragrant white flowers. Divided leaves. Self-sowing. Listed as V. eizanense in Hortus Third.

Hardiness

Zones 6–8

Sometimes known as Erpetion reniforme, this is a pretty little trailing plant with small kidney-shaped leaves and numerous little half white, half lilac-blue flowers on erect two to three inch stems. It grows well in shady or semi shady moist soil and could be used to cascade down a slope or wall. It is hardy in the warmer zones and a greenhouse plant in the North.

Hardiness

Zones 8–9

Height

2–4 in.

Spread

12–15 in.

This woodland violet native to eastern North America is valued for the bright yellow flowers. Also known as Viola pennsylvanica and Viola eriocarpa. A nice little violet for the woodland garden or shady border and a surprise to all who think violets have to be blue!

Hardiness

Zones 4–8

Height

4–5 in.

Spread

4–6 in.

Southern coastal violet, leaves cordate or lobed. Blue-violet flowers. (See HRT)

Hardiness

Zones 7–9

A native violet grown as much for the leaf as the flower. Viola walteri, Walter's violet, belongs to the violet family, Violaceae, and honors the British-born botanist Thomas Walter, whose Flora Caroliniana of 1788 was the first flora of the American Southeast. The prostrate blue violet ranges in the wild from Texas east to Florida and north to Virginia and Ohio, threading the floors of moist deciduous woodlands and shaded rocky ledges.

Hardiness

Zones 7–8

Light

Part Shade / Full Shade

Height

2–3 in.

Spread

5–6 in.

Bloom

Purple

Plant type

Groundcover

Some plants stand quietly in the garden, and some speak. Vitex agnus-castus has been speaking for more than two thousand years, from sun-washed Mediterranean shores to monastery cloisters, from the herbals of ancient Greece to the borders of Southern gardens. In Homer's day the fragrant leaves and lavender flower spikes were woven into ritual garlands. The Romans knew the shrub as the chaste tree, a name wrapped in legend, since the peppery seeds were once thought to cool passion, which earned the seeds the cloister nickname of monk's pepper. The double name says as much twice over: agnus is Latin for lamb and castus for chaste, while the genus Vitex comes from vieo, to weave, a nod to the pliant branches once bent into baskets.

Hardiness

Zones 6–9

Light

Full Sun / Part Shade

Height

10–20 ft.

Spread

10–20 ft.

Bloom

Purple

Plant type

Shrub

Traditional use

reproductive health, mental & emotional well-being

Small tree in South. Treat as herbaceous perennial in the North. Lilac flowers. (See DIR)

Hardiness

Zones 6–10

Chaste tree is a small deciduous tree in South but can be grown as a perennial in the North. The leaves have been mistaken for those of Cannabis (Marijuana). The clusters of lilac flowers in summer have caused some to call it "Summer Lilac". It is a lovely summer flowering tree native to southern Europe and western Asia. Plant it in an open site with well-drained soil. This variety 'Flora Ann' was selected and named by Greg Grant of Nacogdoches, Texas. He named it for the late Mrs. Flora Ann Bynum of Winston Salem, NC a dear friend and great gardener. It is derived from Greg's variety 'Selina's Pink' and has good deep pink flowers.

Hardiness

Zones 7–9

Height

15–20 ft.

Spread

15–20 ft.

Vitex agnus-castus or Chaste Tree is a decidous small tree or large shrub native to southern Europe and western Asia. The five to seven leaflets are palmately arranged and aromatic when bruised. The plant is valued for it's showy terminal spikes of flowers which appear in sumer and are typically blue, lvender, or occasionally white. Pink flowered forms are uncommon and 'Salinas Pink' is perhaps the nicest. It was found in the garden of a Mrs. Salinas in San Antonio, Texas by plantsman Greg Grant. Plant Vitex in moist but well-drained soil in full sun. Vitex is a great substitute for Lilac in the Deep South.

Hardiness

Zones 7–9

Height

15–20 ft.

Spread

12–18 ft.

A superior selection of the ancient chaste tree, chosen for the size and color of the bloom. Vitex agnus-castus 'Shoal Creek' is a deciduous large shrub or small tree, native in the species to southern Europe and western Asia and long grown across the South for a long season of summer flower. The palmate, aromatic leaves have now and then been mistaken for those of cannabis, a passing resemblance that gives the plant a certain conversational charm.

Hardiness

Zones 7–10

Light

Full Sun / Part Shade

Height

15–20 ft.

Spread

10–15 ft.

Bloom

Purple

Plant type

Shrub

Traditional use

reproductive health, mental & emotional well-being

This large deciduous shrub or small tree is similar to Vitex agnus-castus but the five leaflets are very dissected and the panicles of blue flowers are more open. Overall it is a more open, airy, and possibly more hardy than Vitex agnus-castus. A good ornamental shrub with foliage that is deeply cut and not so readily mistaken for marijuana as Vitex agnus-castus.

Hardiness

Zones 6–9

Height

12–18 ft.

Spread

10–12 ft.

A tough, salt-defying seaside groundcover with a serious caveat. Vitex rotundifolia, best known as beach vitex, is a low, prostrate, trailing shrub of the mint family, native to the coasts of eastern Asia, the Pacific islands, and Australia, where the plant binds shifting sand along the shore. Rounded, blue-green leaves about two inches across clothe the running stems, aromatic and slightly spicy when crushed, and spikes of bright lavender-blue flowers open in late summer.

Hardiness

Zones 7–10

Light

Full Sun

Height

3–4 ft.

Spread

4–6 ft.

Bloom

Blue

Plant type

Groundcover

Traditional use

pain relief, respiratory support