Viburnum opulus | guelder rose
Much underused wild shrub for small and urban gardens
When wild viburnums look this good, why have we been bothering with cultivated ones?
Viburnum opulus first came onto my radar one winter during my walks along the Surrey Hills. In the dull grey, red berries of the guelder rose shone out.
Here on our farm in Yorkshire, we’re lucky to have one at the bottom of the garden as well as a few dotted among our mixed hedges.
It’s a shrub of short moments through the seasons. From the winter stems, emerging spring leaves, early-summer flowers, autumn colours and translucent red berries. None last particularly long but each is as beautiful as the next.
Need to know information about Viburnum opulus
Viburnum opulus is a temperate climate shrub indigenous so Siberia and Europe, down to the northern tip of Africa. It’s hardy down to -20C.
It will grow upto 4-5m tall and about 3-4m wide, giving it a nice tall shape - it basically looks as you’d imagine a small tree should.
Plant in full-sun to part-shade. This is a woodland edge species that likes some sunshine to power its flowers and berries, but tolerant of some shade from other trees.
According to the Woodland Trust and lots of other websites online, the common name guelder comes from the Dutch province of Gelderland where the shrub was bred into different cultivars - though I can’t find any original sources to verify that.
Its leaves are beautifully shaped, with three lobes, a little like a maple. Overall, the shape of the leaves gives the shrub a strong and beautiful texture and pattern.
Is Viburnum opulus good for wildlife?
As a multibranched large shrub, Viburnum opulus is a good place for nesting birds. Wood pigeons are nesting in ours, but any small to medium bird will feel happy in its branches.
In our garden all birds eat the berries, so they don’t last long. I suspect bullfinches, songthrush and blackbirds gobble most of them.
Hoverflies can be seen around their flowers, alongside most other pollinators including bees, wasps, moths and butterflies.
Designing with Viburnum opulus
Personally I think Viburnum opulus is extremely underused as an architectural multistem shrub that looks like a small tree. Perfect for small and urban gardens or anywhere you’d like to get that designer look with multiple stems surrounded by beautiful underplanting.
It’s an ideal alternative or companion to Amelanchier lamarckii.
Accompany it with other shrubs and small trees with autumn colour for a real show. Ours is growing near crab apples and Euonymous europaeus, as well as Hamamelis, witchhazel. All of which I added to boost our autumn display and food or habitat for wildlife.
The flowers of Viburnum opulus are very similar to lacecap Hydrangea, if smaller, with large sterile florets around the outside of its flat discs of flower. Making it a good wild alternative to Hydrangeas, though bear in mind they flower at a different time of year, and Viburnum opulus for not as long a period.
I really enjoy designing with multistem large shrubs and small trees (basically the same thing) because of the effect you can get when they are underplanted. Their lower branches can be removed to let more light in. Our Viburnum opulus is currently underplanted with stinging nettles… unintentionally, but I hope to change this with a mix of geranium, ox-eye daisy, ferns, martagon lilies, astrantia, asters and various other herbaceous plants.
If you do plant a Viburnum opulus in your garden, consider planting it with other shrubs or plants that will take over the flowering baton in late summer.
p.s. other wild plants flowering right now...
Sambucus nigra | elderflower tree
The first tree I fell in love with for planting in other people’s gardens is elderflower, Sambucus nigra. I use it in almost all of my designs for its beautiful look, ease of growing, ruffled texture and wildlife value. While I used to have a real thing for the purple cultivars, and still do, it is the wild species that I’m increasingly drawn to. Its divided fresh green leaves, craggy bark, reliable imperfect shape. Plus the flat cream-white umbels in June are a highlight of the year for me, followed by glossy dark berries. It is one of my favourite plants to see and here I’m going to explain to you why.
Digitalis purpurea | foxglove
It’s well documented in my book Wild about Weeds how much I love foxgloves. They’re classic and timeless, yet contemporary with a slim vertical inflorescence of bell shaped flowers. They mark the early summer months across the UK and the rest of Europe when they can be found growing at the foot of walls, woodland edges and pathways. Loved by bumblebees that buzz their way upward from flower to flower, they are an essential plant in garden design for their upright shape and ability to self sow gently in gaps that need filling.
Cytisus scoparius | broom
Broom gets its name from the old use of its tough stems with wiry ends. Cut, dried and upturned, with lots of stems tied together, broom was once used to sweep floors. Who knows why we all stopped using it.
Leucanthemum vulgare | ox-eye daisy
If snowdrops do the heavy lifting in winter, followed by pulmonaria in spring and then alliums in early-summer, it’s the ox-eye daisy that picks up the pace heading into mid-summer. Our garden is choc full of them because, well, I’ve let them take over - I love them! There’s nothing better than their happy flowers on thin stems wobbling in the wind, especially when reflecting the glow of the moon at night.