Viburnum × burkwoodii Burkwood & Skipwith ex Anon. in

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Viburnum × burkwoodii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-x-burkwoodii/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Synonyms

  • Gard. Chron ., Vol. 85 (1929), p. 285

Glossary

bud
Immature shoot protected by scales that develops into leaves and/or flowers.
clone
Organism arising via vegetative or asexual reproduction.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
hybrid
Plant originating from the cross-fertilisation of genetically distinct individuals (e.g. two species or two subspecies).
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
stellate
Star-shaped.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Viburnum × burkwoodii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-x-burkwoodii/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

This charming hybrid was raised by Messrs Burkwood and Skipwith in their nursery at Kingston-on-Thames in 1924. It was raised from V. utile pollinated by V. carlesii and has inherited the evergreen character of the seed parent. Its ovate, pointed leaves are 112 to 4 in. long, 34 to 134 in. wide, rounded or slightly heart-shaped at the base, indistinctly toothed, dark, slightly burnished green above, thickly covered beneath with pale brown stellate down; leaf-stalks 14 in. or less long, covered (like the young shoots) with the same kind of down as the leaves. Flowers charmingly fragrant, produced in late April and May in rounded, five-rayed, terminal, well-filled clusters 212 to 312 in. across. Each flower is about 12 in. wide, the corolla having five spreading, rounded lobes, pinkish when quite young, afterwards pure white; anthers pale yellow.

This viburnum is very hardy, and with the beauty of its fragrant flowers, and its easy propagation from cuttings, it has become one of the most widely planted of viburnums, thriving even in a smoky environment. It grows to about 8 ft high and slightly more in width. It is not completely evergreen. Although the main flowering season is spring, some trusses may open in early winter if the weather is mild.

This hybrid is mainly represented in cultivation by the original clone ‘Burkwoodii’. Believed to be of the same parentage are ‘Chenaultii’, of more compact habit and more moderate growth, with slightly duller more persistent leaves; and ‘Park Farm’, which grows as tall as ‘Burkwoodii’, of which it is a sister-seedling, and differs in its slightly larger clusters of flowers pinker in the bud. Its older leaves colour in the autumn.


'Mohawk'


V 'Anne Russell'

A backcross of V. carlesii with ‘Burkwoodii’, raised by Messrs L. R. Russell of Windlesham and named in 1951. Leaves slightly glossy, broad-elliptic. Flowers about {5/8} in. wide, pink in the bud, opening white, in perfectly shaped, not too dense trusses about 3 in. wide, very fragrant. Of compact habit. This fine viburnum is 6 ft high and 8 ft across at Wakehurst Place in Sussex. Award of Merit 1957.


V 'Fulbrook'

When this viburnum received an Award of Merit in 1957 the parentage was stated to be V. carlesii crossed with V. × burkwoodii, but it shows no influence of the latter and is quite unlike ‘Anne Russell’. It is of rather open, graceful habit. Flowers in late April or May, white when expanded, in broad, rather lax trusses about 4 in. wide. Raised by Miss Florence Paget and distributed by Mrs Douglas Gordon of Fulbrook House, Elstead, Surrey.