Chesapeake Viburnum
Viburnum x carlcephalum 'Chesapeake'
A National Arboretum introduction from 1962, this low, spreading viburnum opens spring with pink buds that bloom into lightly fragrant white snowballs against leathery semi-evergreen foliage.
Donald Egolf bred Chesapeake Viburnum at the US National Arboretum and released it in 1962, and the cultivar has held its place in American gardens ever since. Reaching only 5 to 6 feet tall but spreading wider, it earns its keep under power lines and along property edges where taller shrubs cannot go. The pink buds of early spring unfurl into rounded white flower clusters with a light, pleasant fragrance, and the dark green leathery foliage hangs on well into autumn, giving the plant a semi-evergreen character in the middle and lower portions of its range.
Prune immediately after flowering rather than waiting for summer, because next year's flower buds set on new growth over the warm months. If you miss that window, you sacrifice the bloom. Fruit production requires a nearby plant of the same species for cross-pollination, so a single specimen will remain fruitless. Bacterial leaf spot and powdery mildew occasionally show up but cause no lasting harm, and deer leave it largely alone. Zones 5 through 8.
Chesapeake Viburnum
Viburnum x carlcephalum 'Chesapeake'
Fragrant Snowball, Fragrant Viburnum, factsheet