Fragrant Snowball Viburnum

Fragrant Snowball Viburnum is a large deciduous shrub covered in rounded white flower clusters with a strong sweet fragrance in spring. Its open, rounded form and reddish fall color give it value beyond the bloom season, while the flowers are useful for cutting. Use it as a specimen, flowering hedge, foundation anchor, or fragrant backdrop where it has room to reach six to ten feet. Full sun produces the heaviest flowering, but part shade and consistent moisture can be helpful at the warm edge of its range.

Plant details

• Botanical name: Viburnum × carlcephalum
• Light: Full sun to part shade
• USDA zones: 6–8
• Mature height: 6–10 ft
• Mature width: 6–10 ft
• Foliage: Deciduous; green foliage with reddish fall color
• Flower or feature: Large, rounded, highly fragrant white snowball clusters
• Bloom season: Spring
• Water: Average to regular; prefers moist, well-drained soil; drought tolerant once established
• Growth habit: Multi-stemmed, open, rounded and spreading
• Landscape uses: Specimen, flowering hedge, foundation anchor, shrub border, fragrance garden, cut flowers
• Deer tolerance: Not reliably deer resistant

South Carolina garden note: Zone 8b is the warm edge of its listed range. Give it dependable moisture and some afternoon relief on very hot sites.

Plant size and performance vary with climate, soil, pruning and care. Availability changes with nursery inventory.