Doublefile in the spotlight

Things at GWI these days are mostly green: a lot of promise, but not much color. My Single Lates are still hanging on in front (I almost feel like telling them, oh drop your petals already). Other than that, the viburnum tomentosum above is my showiest plant at the moment. It’s about six feet tall, which seems high, but Botanica lists it as getting at least that big if left unpruned. (Pruning? What’s that?)

It nicely embraces this sculpture and provides a needed screen for this little corner, which shows a bit of my neighbor’s unlovely back door area, also blocking the unattractive chain link that divides our properties here. This is quite a shady area too, so I feel lucky to have been successful with the shrub. It’s not the native variety, sadly, though some of the natives I’ve seen around here are worried by really bad insect problems. I gave Michele my viburnum book, or I’d regale with you with minutia on this variety. Suffice it to say that it’s my very favorite shrub, before the hydrangeas, and well before the under-performing rhododendrons in front. If I replaced them, I would consider viburnums; I’m not a great believer in winter interest these days. The only thinking about this one is that I don’t see many berries on it.

I even have a name for it, which it shares with the sculpture and its creator: Burke.