Burkwood Viburnum in the Scented Garden

The most satisfying garden is a sensual experience, pulling you in with enticing melodies and wrapping you in voluptuous layers of texture and color and powerful, though often subtle aromas. You breathe it in and it seeps into your consciousness, where it lies like opium, drawing you back again and again.

Viburnum x burkwoodii belongs in a garden like that. Burkwood viburnum has sweet, spicy flowers, perfect for the scented garden.There are over 150 species of Viburnum, and I grow a few of them. One of my favorites is Burkwood viburnum, a wonderful plant for the shrub border or as a specimen. Though it looks a little gangly in its youth, it will mature to a dense shrub up to 8 to 10 feet with either a rounded or upright habit. The leaves are lustrous green with downy undersides. Usually deciduous, it may be evergreen in the mildest regions. Mohawk and Chenaultii are cultivars that have impressive fall color. 

Birds and butterflies love this shrub. Red to pink flower buds appear in 3 inch snowball shaped clusters in spring, opening to creamy white flowers with a marvelous sweet, spicy scent. Its green berries turn red, then black as summer arrives.

Burkwood viburnum will grow in hardiness zones 4-8, in full to part sun. It likes moist, well drained, slightly acid soil, but it can tolerate less than ideal conditions. An easy care shrub, it is heat and drought tolerant. It needs little if any fertilizing.

Burkwood viburnum is an ornamental shrub with multiseasonal interest, and my scented garden would not be complete without it. 

Columbine: My Favorite Flower

In all the world of flowers, Aquilegia blooms, also known as Columbine and Granny's Bonnet, are my favorite. That is saying a lot!

Why do I love them so? I don't know; it's an emotional response. The first time I found one blooming in my garden, I was enchanted. This was soon after we moved to our current home, and I was yet a baby gardener. The charming pink flower with its frilly white petticoat reminded me of a little fairy girl, dressed for a party. I also love the clump forming, fern-like foliage with deeply lobed leaves. Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds all love these flowers, too, and I love that they love them.

I soon found several more columbines scattered about the property. I suspect these were planted long ago by the original owner of my home, Mrs Dearing, and I think of them as a surprise gift from her. I transplanted my finds to a location in the front garden, and they have flourished in the rich organic mulch that covers the paths in that area. These perennials live only a few years but reseed readily, and every spring I search the paths for new seedlings, which I move to better locations as needed.These photos, taken last year, show columbine blooming beside a path in the front garden along with other spring flowers. My columbine haven't begun blooming yet this year, but they should be flowering by the end of this month.

The many varieties of columbine will cross pollinate, producing offspring with different characteristics. Because I love what I have, which I think is Aquilegia vulgaris, I have hesitated introducing other species. But this past weekend I relented when confronted with the multiple hued blooms with widely space, long spurs that characterize the McKanna hybrids. I bought several and then planted them in the woodland garden away from the others in the front. It will be interesting to see what sort of offspring they produce and if they do as well as my originals.Just planted McKanna hybrids, shown here in the woodland garden in front of spreading yews, have only a few blooms now, but new buds should open as spring unfolds.

Columbine isn't perfect. The foliage is subject to leaf miners, which leave unsightly trails in the leaves. While this doesn't seem to harm the plant, it spoils the beauty. The flowers bloom in spring, then the leaf miners arrive by summer. I usually cut the affected plants back to the ground, and then fresh perfect foliage will sprout back. In my mild climate, the foliage will often persist through the winter.

Aquilegia varieties will grow in hardiness zones 3-8. They do best in well drained, moist soil high in organic matter, and they prefer light to moderate shade. With their naturalizing but never weedy habit, they are most at home in a cottage or woodland type garden.