Moonlit Lace Viburnum

Evergreen shrubs are the backbone of every garden, giving permanence and structure, while flowers only dance in and out through the seasons. When choosing evergreens for your garden, the quality and beauty of the foliage has to be top of the list, because that is what you see 365 days of the year. For filling the foreground of your beds, broad, spreading plants are ideal, since they stay low, and just a few fill a good-sized space. This makes the Moonlit Lace® Viburnum an ideal choice, because it really does have beautiful foliage and the perfect mounding form. Fresh and clean all year round, the large, glossy leaves are a rich green, with interesting vein markings. It’s highly adaptable to sun or shade, and to top it off, every spring it is literally covered in large heads of white flowers, giving it a really attractive look for several weeks. Trouble-free and needing no particular care, this is the perfect evergreen for every part of your garden.

Growing the Moonlit Lace® Viburnum

Size and Appearance

The Moonlit Lace Viburnum is a broad evergreen shrub reaching about 3 feet tall, and spreading 4 to 5 feet wide. It makes a broad, dense mound of leaves, and looks great every day of the year. The leaves are 3 to 4 inches long, with a leathery texture and a smooth, glossy surface. Their attractive oval form is shown off by the way they arch out from the stems, giving a lovely mounding look to this plant. There is extra interest to be found in the three prominent veins that run elegantly along the leaf surface. These leaves stay green and fresh, without yellowing or turning dusty in summer. For that lovely evergreen look on a lower shrub, this is one that can’t be beaten.

In spring every branch is topped with a dome-shaped cluster of small white flowers, several inches across, carried on short green stems. The arrangement of these flowers does indeed look like a delicate pattern in lace. So many flower clusters form that the foliage is almost completely hidden. It looks lovely for several weeks, and this hybrid plant doesn’t make berries or seeds, so the flower heads disappear neatly beneath the new spring growth, without needing any dead-heading.

Using the Moonlit Lace® Viburnum in Your Garden

Wherever you need a graceful, mounding evergreen, the Moonlit Lace Viburnum is your best choice. Tall enough to make a statement, but not enough to take over your garden, it’s ideal for smaller beds, or planted in groups in the front of larger ones. Space plants 3 feet apart in groups or as an edging. Grow in around your home, in beds out in the garden, and also in more natural areas, where its gentle beauty will fit in perfectly. It’s a great choice for an Asian-style garden, and it’s wonderful used in planter boxes and pots as well.

Hardiness

The Moonlit Lace Viburnum is hardy from zone 7 to 9, taking temperatures close to zero even in pots. It hasn’t been tested much in zone 6, but it could easily do well in a sheltered spot there – why not give it a try?

Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions

The Moonlit Lace Viburnum will grow well in full sun, and also with some afternoon shade, so it can be planted in many parts of your garden. It grows best in neutral or acid soils, and it does need good drainage. Established plants are drought resistant, and this plant has great tolerance of heat and humidity, even in the southeast.

Maintenance and Pruning

Pests and diseases won’t bother your Moonlit Lace Viburnum, as long as the soil is well-drained, and even deer don’t pay it much attention. It needs no pruning or dead-heading, unless you want to make it look extra-perfect, so it’s ideal for busy gardeners.

History and Origin of the Moonlit Lace® Viburnum

David’s Viburnum, Viburnum davidii, is a beautiful evergreen, with very attractive foliage, and a highly desirable garden plant, but it only grows well in areas with cool summers, so it fails badly in the southeast. Ted Stevens of Nurseries Caroliniana, in North Augustus, South Carolina, was travelling in Japan earlier this century and he visited many small nurseries. At one he was offered a plant that was said to be a cross between David’s Viburnum and the very heat-resistant Viburnum tinus, a popular landscape plant in the southeast. When he grew it at his nursery he found it performed very well in his climate, capturing much of the beauty of David’s Viburnum, but growing so much better. He gave it the name ‘sPg-3-024’ and has applied for a patent. This plant is today made available with the trademark name of Moonlit Lace® by The Conard-Pyle Company under their Star® Roses and Plants brand.

Buying the Moonlit Lace® Viburnum at the Tree Center

The famous plantsman Michael Dirr told Ted Stevens that his plant was one of the nicer Viburnum he had seen, and you can’t have a better recommendation that that. We love being able to offer unique new plants of this quality, and we know it will be popular. So order now, while we still have some stock available.