Name: Viburnum Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum ‘Summer Snowflake’
Type of Plant: Shrub for full sun or part shade. Hardy from zones 5 to 8
Why I love this: This variety of doublefile viburnum is especially flower-filled in late May and early June. But unlike most Viburnum, this one continues to put out flowers in the summer. I also love this cultivar (the ‘Summer Snowflake’ name is important!) because it’s way more narrow than the regular doublefile Viburnum. This makes it well suited for smaller properties and planting off the corners of houses, for example. I also love the fact that although this plant reblooms, it isn’t doing so because the flowers are sterile. In fact, fruit and flowers appear on this shrub at the same time if you don’t deadhead.
A Word to the Wise: And speaking of cutting the spent flowers off…when I deadhead this shrub it has a noticeably better summer bloom, so if you want to be sure to have showy flowers later, clip or shear off the earlier blooms.
Who can’t use a narrow shrub that flowers like this and then puts out repeat blooms later in the summer? As long as you plant it where it can grow tall, there is no downside to this shrub.
I have ‘Summer Snowflake’ on the edge of the yard in front of a weeping Alaska cedar and to the right of a Weigela ‘Rubidor’ so there is not only flowering but great foliage color and contrast.
