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| 1/15/14 Dawn greets a winter dawn |
Oof, this is way bigger and way rangier than I was led to believe!
I got a very large (15 gal.) Viburnum bodnantense from Woodland Gardens and put it in along the east side of the house.
It has fragrant pink flowers in late winter. I planted it way too close to the house, along the east side, under the dining room windows where I expected it to stay narrow and upright and to have a lovely fragrance to scent the house in early spring.
However, it is anything but narrow and upright -- it's a wild looking monster of a huge arching shrub.
And the leaves have a very strong sharp smell, not unpleasant but a little medicinal. The fragrance of the flowers is a heavy, musky smell that I'm not fond of. There is no fall color.
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| September 15, 2013. Seriously?? This is its form? |
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| April 20, 2014 |
As it grows it remains the most godawful shape, all twiggy with branches zooming out and arching over and twisting oddly. Weird plant.
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| April 18 and 19, 2015 |
Honestly, I am mystified by this viburnum. MoBot describes it in glowing terms as a nice specimen plant with beautiful foliage, good fall color and a small upright shape, that should be planted near the house to smell the flowers and see it.
This is not an elegant upright shrub. This is a wild child. This is not an 8-10 foot high vase shaped plant, it is already 15 feet tall and growing in ll directions despite my pruning. It has an unpleasant fragrance and no fall color. It is not even remotely upright shaped. Aack.
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| July 2015 |
Christmas 2015 was unusually warm, and 'Dawn's' pink buds began to open!
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| 12/25/15 |
I am letting the vertical suckers at the base grow upward in 2106 -- I think if I allow it to form its natural upright thicket form, it may not get so rangy. Or I may severely prune this thing down to a foot high stump and let it regrow.
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| from Over the Garden Gate |
Here is some of what they say:
This is an upright, narrow, multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub that typically matures to 8-10’ tall (sometimes more) and to 4-6' wide.
Good three-season interest (spring flowers, quality summer foliage and good fall color). Foundations or shrub borders.
Shrub also has good specimen value. Consider siting this shrub in areas (along a walkway or near a door)And a grove of Dawn Viburnums is growing on the High Line, sited among the rail tracks, with white birches. The individual plants look awkward there too, but massed in a group they have impact. Here's a post on them in bloom in April 2015.
