Chicago Lustre Viburnum Live Shrub – 10-18″ Tall – 3″ Pot – Outdoor

Overview

Introduce a touch of sophisticated natural beauty to your outdoor space with the Chicago Lustre Viburnum live shrub. This exceptional cultivar of Arrowwood Viburnum, scientifically known as Viburnum dentatum ‘Chicago Lustre’, is celebrated for its more compact, rounded growth habit and remarkably glossy green foliage. In early summer, it bursts forth with clusters of delicate white flowers, creating a stunning visual display. These flowers are followed by an abundance of striking blue-black berries that are not only ornamental but also a favorite food source for birds, making it an excellent choice for bird-friendly landscapes. The Chicago Lustre Viburnum live shrub is a robust and adaptable plant, derived from North American species, ensuring its resilience and suitability for a wide range of climates and soil conditions, making it a garden favorite for both novice and experienced gardeners.

This particular ornamental viburnum is supplied as a healthy live plant, typically measuring 10-18 inches tall and rooted in a 3-inch pot, ready for planting upon arrival. Its manageable size at shipment ensures easier handling and successful establishment in your garden. Whether you’re looking to create a formal hedge, enhance a pollinator garden, or simply add a beautiful, low-maintenance specimen to your yard, the ‘Chicago Lustre’ offers year-round appeal from its vibrant spring blooms to its rich autumn foliage and persistent berries. Discover the lasting charm and ecological benefits this outstanding shrub brings to any garden setting.

Key Benefits

The Chicago Lustre Viburnum live shrub offers a multitude of benefits, making it a highly desirable addition to any landscape. Its robust nature and aesthetic appeal combine with ecological advantages to provide a truly valuable plant for your garden.

• Stunning Ornamental Appeal: This viburnum boasts highly glossy green leaves that maintain their luster throughout the growing season, providing a refined backdrop for its seasonal displays. Its compact, rounded form ensures a neat and attractive appearance in any garden design.
• Beautiful White Flowers: In summer, the plant produces abundant clusters of pure white flowers. These create a spectacular show and add a refreshing brightness to your landscape, signaling the arrival of the warmer months.
• Attractive Blue-Black Berries: Following the flowering period, the shrub develops striking blue-black berries. These berries offer excellent visual interest, especially as the season progresses, and provide a valuable food source for various bird species.
• Attracts Wildlife: Beyond its beauty, the ornamental viburnum serves as a crucial element in a bird-friendly landscape. The berries are a natural attractant for birds, encouraging diverse avian visitors to your garden.
• Versatile Landscape Use: Ideal for a variety of garden applications, whether used to create dense, attractive hedges, as a standalone specimen plant, or integrated into pollinator gardens and naturalized settings. Its adaptability makes it suitable for diverse design needs.
• Low Maintenance and Durable: Known for its resilience, the ‘Chicago Lustre’ tolerates a range of conditions, including urban environments and clay soils, making Arrowwood Viburnum care relatively straightforward. Once established, it requires minimal intervention, thriving with basic watering and occasional pruning.
• Excellent Cold Tolerance: With USDA hardiness zones ranging from 3 to 8, this shrub exhibits excellent cold tolerance, allowing it to flourish in many different regions across the United States, enduring harsh winter conditions with grace.

Plant Care & Growing Tips

Proper care is essential for ensuring your Chicago Lustre Viburnum live shrub thrives and reaches its full potential, providing years of beauty and enjoyment. This resilient shrub is relatively easy to care for, making it suitable for gardeners of all experience levels. Understanding its specific needs will help you cultivate a robust and vibrant plant.

When it comes to sunlight, the ‘Chicago Lustre’ thrives in full sun, meaning at least six hours of direct sunlight per day. However, it is quite tolerant of partial shade, where it will still grow well but may produce fewer flowers and berries. For optimal growth and flowering, a sunny location is recommended. Watering is crucial during the first growing season; the shrub will require weekly watering to establish a strong root system. Once established, it becomes more drought-tolerant but will benefit from supplemental watering during extended dry periods, especially in hot climates. The key to successful Arrowwood Viburnum care is consistent moisture without waterlogging the soil.

This viburnum prefers loamy, well-drained soils but demonstrates remarkable tolerance for clay soils and challenging urban conditions, making it a versatile choice for many landscapes. Good drainage is vital to prevent root rot. Planting is best done in spring or fall, allowing the plant to establish before extreme temperatures. After planting, applying a layer of mulch around the base will help retain soil moisture, regulate soil temperature, and suppress weeds. Pruning should be done immediately after blooming to maintain the desired shape and size. Avoid heavy late pruning, as this can reduce the number of flowers produced the following year. Mature plants typically reach 8–12 feet tall and 8–12 feet wide. Fertilization is generally not heavily required in good soil, but a balanced slow-release fertilizer in early spring can promote vigorous growth and blooming. Keep an eye out for common pests like aphids or viburnum leaf beetles, and address them with appropriate organic or chemical controls if necessary.

Size & Details

The Chicago Lustre Viburnum live shrub is shipped as a vibrant, healthy plant, typically standing 10-18 inches tall from the base of the plant to the top. It comes rooted in a 3-inch nursery pot, providing a well-established root system ready for direct planting into your garden or a larger container. This size ensures easy handling and a smooth transition to its new home. Upon maturity, this robust shrub can reach an impressive size of 8–12 feet tall and an equal spread of 8–12 feet wide, forming a substantial and attractive presence in the landscape. Its moderate growth rate means it will fill out over time, creating a dense, rounded form without becoming overly aggressive.

The plant is derived from North American species, contributing to its hardiness and adaptability. It is specifically suited for USDA Zones 3–8, indicating excellent cold tolerance and a wide geographical range for successful cultivation. The ‘Chicago Lustre’ cultivar is known for its compact habit compared to other Arrowwood Viburnums, making it an excellent choice for ornamental hedges, specimen plantings, or as part of a pollinator-friendly garden. Expect its first blooms and berries within the first few years after planting, with increasing abundance as it matures. This Viburnum dentatum Chicago Lustre offers a lasting investment in your garden’s beauty and ecological health.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: How big does this plant get? A: The Chicago Lustre Viburnum live shrub can grow to a mature size of 8–12 feet tall and 8–12 feet wide. Its compact, rounded habit makes it a great choice for various landscape applications.
• Q: What size pot does it come in? A: This particular ornamental viburnum is shipped as a live plant in a 3-inch nursery pot, with a height of 10-18 inches, ensuring a well-rooted and healthy start for your garden.
• Q: Is this an indoor or outdoor plant? A: The ‘Chicago Lustre’ Viburnum is an outdoor plant, best suited for garden landscapes, hedges, and borders. It thrives in various outdoor conditions and is not typically grown as a houseplant.
• Q: How much sunlight does it need? A: This shrub prefers full sun (at least 6 hours of direct sunlight daily) for optimal flowering and berry production, but it can also tolerate partial shade.
• Q: Is this plant easy to care for? A: Yes, the Chicago Lustre Viburnum live shrub is considered easy to care for. It’s adaptable to various soil types and tolerant of urban conditions, making Arrowwood Viburnum care relatively simple for most gardeners.
• Q: What condition will it arrive in? A: Your viburnum will arrive as a healthy, live plant, carefully packaged to ensure minimal stress during transit. It will be rooted in its 3-inch pot, ready for planting.
• Q: When is the best time to plant this viburnum? A: The best times to plant the ‘Chicago Lustre’ Viburnum are in the spring or fall, allowing it to establish its root system before the extreme heat of summer or the cold of winter.
• Q: Will it survive winter in my zone? A: This viburnum is very cold hardy, thriving in USDA Zones 3–8. If your area falls within this range, it will successfully overwinter and return each spring.
• Q: What are the best uses for the Chicago Lustre Viburnum? A: It is excellent for ornamental hedges, privacy screens, pollinator gardens, and bird-friendly landscapes. Its attractive foliage and berries provide year-round interest.
• Q: Does this plant attract birds? A: Yes, the blue-black berries that follow the white flowers are a favorite food source for many bird species, making it an ideal choice for attracting wildlife to your garden.