You get more than just handsome foliage and beautiful flowers with Viburnum ‘Emerald Beauty’. In addition, there are deep pink buds which look good for some time in winter before they open to reveal the pure white flowers and when these finish there are clusters of attractive, very dark, shiny blue berries.
Mind you, the evergreen foliage alone is reason enough to grow this tall, cold hardy shrub, giving it year round good looks and making it stand out in any company. The dark green colour is an excellent background to the bright colours of Rhododendrons, which enjoy the same, rich, not-inclined-to-dry-out soils.
A row of Viburnum ‘Emerald Beauty’ makes an outstanding, informal hedge. Not a hedge that’s clipped to a rigid, wall-like shape - you need a smaller leafed shrub to create that effect - but a less formal, rounded, very elegant row of glossy green.
Where there’s a little shade nearby, plant some highly fragrant Daphne varieties such as ‘Leucanthe’ or ‘Rubra’ to go with this Viburnum. Their flowering time coincides and the colours of buds and flowers are quite similar.
In open situations, there’s a stunning combination to be had by combining Viburnum ‘Emerald Beauty’ with the showy white flowers and deep green foliage of Michelia ‘Fiona’ or Michelia ‘Velvet and Cream’.
Also good to grow with this Viburnum is Dichroa ‘Blue Sapphires’, an evergreen relation of Hydrangeas which keeps on producing its big heads of beautiful, sky blue flowers all summer and autumn. Try some of the blue flowered, compact growing Ceanothus varieties such as the very dark foliaged ‘Blue Sapphire’ in the foreground too.
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Schemes & Themes
using Liddle Wonder Plants