Viburnum Onondaga (Viburnum sargentii ‘Onondaga’)

Onondaga Viburnum (Viburnum sargentii ‘Onodaga’) is a perennial shrub with highly ornamental qualities. Your Onondaga Viburnum leaves emerge in spring with a deep maroon hue splashing across each leaf! As spring turns to summer, you’ll see your foliage transform to maroon-tinted green. With the development of new leaves, the contrast of the two colors is simply stunning!

Spring also marks the beginning of Onondaga’s glorious flowers, which begin as maroon buds but quickly open to 5-inch, flat-topped clusters of pink-tinted white blossoms. The bees and butterflies will not be able to resist! The color combination creates the most unique ornamental flowering shrub you have ever seen! The textured, crinkled foliage looks handsome as a backdrop to both the lacecap flowers and the future clusters of bright berries!

And if you need more of a reason to pick up a few of this incredible Viburnum variety, once autumn sets in, the cooler weather brings bright red fall foliage and scarlet berries that will persist into winter – much to the delight of your local birds. Hardy throughout USDA growing zones 4 through 7, these cold hardy shrubs are disease resistant, rarely bothered by deer, and stay to a neat and tidy 6-8 feet in height and width!

Planting and Application:

These make a spectacular backdrop for a perennial bed or plant several along an outbuilding for a lively hedge. The more you plant, the more pollination occurs – giving you and your songbirds more berries to delight in each autumn! You’ll feel good providing so much nectar and pollen for your local pollinators, and a buffet for your migratory and backyard birds! Not to mention the shelter and nesting you’ll create for all your area wildlife! Try mixing Onodaga with the pillowy white lacecap blossoms of Chiquita Viburnum to increase the number of berries each year!

Onondaga Viburnum is a deciduous shrub with an upright habit that becomes more rounded with maturity. So it looks fantastic as a foundation shrub, encircling seating areas for privacy and seclusion, in mixed-shrub borders and boosting flower power and fall color of shelterbelts, hedges, plant in berms hiding your front yard from the street, and updating a tired cottage garden. Create a unique accent by exposing the lower portions of the multi-trunked form for a classical tree-like focal point!

• Maroon Buds Ringed By Pinkish-White Lacecap Blossoms
• Dark Maroon Tinted New Foliage Ages To Maroon-Green!
• Superior Color & 4-Season Interest
• Autumn Brings Bright Red Foliage & Scarlet Fruit
• Bird & Butterfly Interest, Hedge, Privacy, Specimen, Foundation & Backdrop

Tips for Care:

Plant this type of Viburnum in full sun for the most flowers and fruit, but it will still grow fast and healthy in partial shade! Any well-drained moderately moist soil will suit Onondaga just fine. It’s quite hardy, unattractive to deer and other pests, and adapts to a variety of soil conditions!

Because Onondaga blooms on old wood, wait to prune until that flush of flowers are done, then prune. But to enjoy fruit as well, instead only renewal prune by removing the oldest, fattest stems a few at a time. This revitalizes the shrub by keeping berries and younger, more vigorous growth. Add a 3-4 inch thick layer of mulch over your root system.

• Full Sun & Partial Shade
• Adaptable to Most Well-Drained Soil
• Average to Higher Moisture Needs & Appreciates Mulched Beds
• Prune After Flowering
• Deer Tend to Leave it Alone & Juglone Resistant

Fresh and unexpected color on an incredible flowering deciduous bush! The Onondaga Viburnum is one of those shrubs you can plant and forget – and yet it turns everyone’s heads. It’s a terrific investment in an ornamental shrub for your yard this summer