Viburnums are shrubs with attractive foliage, flowers and fruit. They are great ornamental landscape plants and wonderful natives. The fruit attracts most fruit-eating birds, including bluebirds, thrashers, waxwings, vireos, catbirds, robins and thrushes. They are virtually pest free and easy to grow.
FOR BIRDS: Cardinals, vireos, pheasants, robins, starlings, thrashers, thrushes, catbird, wild turkeys, waxwings, woodpeckers
Fruiting: Late Summer to mid autumn
Arrowwood Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum) 10-12′ tall/wide, though often only attaining 5-7′ in partial shade. Native Americans used this plant for arrows, thus the name. It naturally grows in wooded swamps, marshes and moist woods. It has fragrant, white flower clusters in late spring, followed by blue-black fruits in late summer/early fall. The dark-green foliage turns reddish colors in the fall. It grows best in well-drained soils in full sun, but tolerates full shade, wet and acid soils.
Birds actively seek out the fruit and will strip the plant clean in late fall, although the fruit hangs on through the winter if the birds don’t find it.
‘Autumn Jazz‘ Viburnum is a cultivar selected from the species for its upright, vase shape and form. It blooms in late May to mid June with clusters of creamy white flowers, followed by clusters of blue-black fruit in late summer/early fall. Fall foliage color ranges from yellow to burgundy in late fall.
Birds are very attracted to the fruit and the shrub also provides good cover and nesting spots.
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Northern Burgundy: Arrowwood Viburnum ‘Northern Burgundy’. This cultivar has a uniform oval-rounded habit, attractive foliage, strong branching and wine-red to burgundy fall color. Creamy white flowers appear in early to mid-June, followed by ornamental clusters of blue-black fruit in autumn. Extremely wet sites should be avoided.
This viburnum grows 8′ to 10′ in height with an equal spread in 10 years.
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Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium) 12-15′ tall/6-12′ wide. Easily grown in average, dry to medium wet, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade, Blackhaw viburnum tolerates drought very well. As a shrub, it typically grows 12-15′ tall with a spread of 6-12′, but as a tree may reach a height of 30′. Non-fragrant white flowers appear in spring, which give way in autumn to blue-black, berry-like drupes which often persist into winter and are quite attractive to birds and wildlife.
Fruits are edible and may be eaten off the bush when ripe or used in jams and preserves. Common name refers to the purported similarity of this plant to hawthorns (sometimes commonly called red haws), though hawthorns are in a different family.
Southwest Minnesota Birding Resources 