My love affair with viburnums came later in life, as it simply wasn’t a plant I connected with at an early age. The longer I’ve gardened, the more I’ve grown to appreciate all that viburnums add to the landscape, in terms of form, fragrant flowers, and fruit. The Asian evergreen Viburnum odoratissimum is one that was long a source of confusion, since many sources listed it as a synonym of the more ubiquitous Viburnum awabuki. When I finally acquired the true species in 2006, I realized that the two species had little in common, other than both being evergreen. Surprisingly, the photo of it on the Royal Botanic Garden Kew’s website still shows a fruiting plant of Viburnum awabuki…yikes! Because of it’s 20′ size, it’s best used as a living screen, where you can also enjoy the sweetly fragrant flowers in spring.
Below is our 19 year old specimen of Viburnum odoratissimum this week.
The viburnum odor nauseates me for some reason. Maybe we had to many. They surrounded our house in Florida. I had to cut them down.
odoratissimum is mispelled once (as ‘odorotissimum’) in the text.
Great catch…thanks.