Viburnum Prunifolium (Blackhaw) 3 Gal

Blackhaw Viburnum

✨WNC Native - Keystone Species✨

Blackhaw Viburnums are awesome yet wildly underused and underappreciated WNC Native shrubs. Featuring clusters of creamy white fragrant spring flowers followed by showy fruits that ripen to blue-black, backed by red-purple fall foliage. Blackhaw Viburnums are an important keystone species, aiding many, many species of wildlife. These large, upright shrubs are incredibly sturdy and resilient; they belong in the muskroot family, Adoxaceae. They thrive in moist, well-draining soils. In the wild, they are found near streams and in sunny, moist forests.

Our plants have been pruned by the grower for shape, and will bloom next year.

🌼Flowers - the large clusters of tiny white flowers have a sweet fragrance. The flowers attract native bees, bumblebees, and a range of beneficial insects. Beneficial insects are the great unsung heroes of gardeners, they will attack and devour pest insects. Because buds for next year's blossoms form in the preceding summer, any pruning should be done immediately after flowering.

🫐Fruits - blue-purple-black fruits will help feed songbirds (including cardinals, bluebirds, and cedar waxwings), squirrels, chipmunks, and other small wildlife. To ensure ample fruit production, plant at least 2 Blackhaw Viburnums near each other.

These are great shrubs for naturalized areas or can be used as a hedge or specimen plants. Excellent for Children's Gardens, Native Gardens, Pollinator Gardens, Rain Gardens, and Wildlife Gardens.

🦋Butterflies: Host plant for roughly* 100 different species of butterflies and moths, including Spring/Summer Azure butterflies and Clearwing Hummingbird moths! Wow!

🐝Bees: These plants are of special value to our native bees, bumblebees, and beneficial insects, according to the Xerxes Society.

✨Incredibly resistant and durable. Once established, Blackhaw Viburnums are resistant to fire, heat, drought, deer, and urban pollution. They are also generally pest and disease free; they can also be planted under Black Walnut trees. Blackhaw Viburnums may not be able to do your taxes, but they can do just about anything good that a plant can do.

❤️RCN Staff Favorite - multiple staff members are growing these plants and love them!

Best flowering in full sun, they also tolerate partial sun.
10-15'T X 6-10'W.
Zones 3-8, cold hardy down to -40F.

🌿Plant Nerd: Blackhaw Viburnums were historically used by multiple Native American tribes, mostly using the bark for a variety of medicinal uses. Notably the Cherokee have a very sophisticated approach to herbal medicine, and have used Blackhaw Viburnum bark as an ingredient in complex formularies to stop convulsions, to bring down fevers, as a tonic, and more. The Meskwaki have used the fruits as a food source.

Generally, Viburnums are self-infertile. The plants have "perfect flowers" which botanically means the  flowers which contain both male and female parts. However, the flowers are self-infertile. We recommend two or even three Blackhaw Viburnum shrubs for successful cross pollination and ample fruiting.

Viburnum prunifolium plants are dramatically decreasing in the outer edges of their range.

*Sources disagree, some say 97, some say 102. In any case, these are phenomenal shrubs for supporting wildlife.