Tennessee Smart Yards Native Plants
A comprehensive database of Tennessee native plants
Arrowwood, Southern Arrowwood
Arrowwood, Southern ArrowwoodViburnum dentatumFull sun to light shade; moderately wet to moderately dry moisture level; prefers loamy rich soil but adapted to various soils including gravelly and sandy loams, fine loamy sands, silt loams, silts, peat and clay soils; moderately acid to slightly acid pH.6-12 feet height by 4-10 feet spread; blooms in May and June; creamy white flowers; small, globular, blue to blackish, ¼ inch diameter berries in drooping, flat-topped clusters in early fall.Growth Rate: MediumMaintenance: Infrequent disease and insect problems. Easy to grow. All viburnums benefit from a thinning or hard pruning in late winter to remove older stems.Propagation: Easy from softwood cuttings and difficult from seedNative Region: Eastern half of TennesseeDeciduous, slender, upright shrub that produces fast-growing sprouts from its base. Attractive addition to the landscape. Possibly the most durable viburnum for the eastern U.S. Commonly occurs in partial shade but can be grown in full sun. Occurs naturally in floodplain forests, stream beds, wet woodlands, swamp edges and bogs. Birds relish the fruit and seeds. Cultivars available.
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 Photo Courtesy of Southeastern Flora http://www.southeasternflora.com/  Photo Courtesy of Southeastern Flora http://www.southeasternflora.com/ |
Tennessee Smart Yards Native Plants 
I would like to comment on a cultivar of this shrub called ‘Blue Muffin’ or ‘Christom Blue Muffin.’ (I believe it was originally released as ‘Christom’ and then later re-released as ‘Blue Muffin.’) As nearly as I can verify, nearly every vendor and every plant summary describes it as “dwarf” and having a height of anywhere from 3-5 feet to 5-7 feet. Ten years ago I purchased one, and fortunately for me, I ran across a post on a gardening website that said “don’t believe it when they claim it is a dwarf.” So I tried to take that into account when I planted it. I just want to repeat that warning since even after 10 years it is still widely proclaimed to be a dwarf. My original planting is beautiful and healthy (even though I have heavy clay soil) but it is now bending over as it pushes up against the overhang of the roof of the house and every spring I have to cut off about 18 inches of growth to keep it off the soffet. You can figure that it easily gets 10 feet tall and probably more than that. However, it is a wonderful shrub nonetheless if you can site it properly for its height. I bought another 8 of this cultivar and have them in different places around the yard. The birds absolutely love the berries, and interestingly enough, its berries ripen in the first half of July compared to the straight species whose berries ripen in September (at least for me and I also have several of the species). I thought this comment might be helpful to others since ‘Blue Muffin’ is probably the most widely available Arrowwood Viburnum.