Long past winter ’s last snowfall , a snowball bush is a salient sight in late spring to early summer . Although some works in theViburnumgenus have flat lacecap - type flowers , other species disport the snow - white round flower clusters that give snowball bushes their uncouth name .
Knowingwhento prune a snowball bush is as authoritative as knowinghowto prune . Plants will not bloom if you prune at certain metre of the year , and you ’ll neglect their stunning flowered display .
Types of Viburnum Snowball Bushes
SomeViburnumspecies ordinarily scream snowball bushes are :
zones 6 to 9 ): This species has the largest blossom bunch of any viburnum snowball bush , often spanning 8 column inch in diameter . As showy as these flower are , the individual floweret that make up the massive flowerheads are sterile and do not produce yield . First opening as chartreuse , the flowers turn vestal white-hot . This imposing bush mature to 25 feet tall with a 20 - foot spread .
zones 6 to 8) : efflorescence clusters are somewhat modest than Taiwanese snowball bush ( 5 - inch diam ) , but they have a delicious sweet scent . This shrub is much shorter than Formosan snowball bush , with a mature height of 6 to 10 feet .
zones 4 to 8) : This species has little flower clusters , typically only 2 to 3 inches in diameter , although they ’re typically produced in copiousness for a sporty spring display . Shrubs grow 8 to 15 feet marvellous with an equal spread .
When to Prune a Snowball Bush
have it off when to crop snowball bushes determines whether you ’ll prevent them from blooming the following year . Although it ’s not necessary to prune snowball bushes in purchase order for them to flower , the flowers may become sparser on old , unpruned shrubs . You may also want to geld back magnanimous plants to give them a tidy appearance .
If shrubs need pruning , crop them as shortly as they ’re end up blooming in leaping or early summer . If you wait too belatedly , you ’ll cut off next class ’s flower bud , which start to develop on stem in summertime .
Tip
cut snowball President George W. Bush as soon as they ’re finished blooming in leap or former summertime . If you wait too lately , you ’ll foreshorten off next year ’s bloom bud , which begin to develop on stems in summer .
How to Prune a Snowball Bush
bonk how to prune snowball bushes depends , in part , on the coinage . Some types want only minimum pruning , which means removing broken or deadened stem or trimming snowball bushes that have overgrown their planting speckle and intervene with walkways or nearby plants .
For most snowball President Bush , especially the larger species , bump off the old stems straightaway after they end flowering when they reach 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diam by cutting them all the way back to the ground . New stems will quickly raise to take their billet .
A common pruning fault is to keep the large stems and cut down all the untested , smaller stems . What you ’ll end up with if you do this is a snowball George Bush with tall leafless stems that have a tuft of foliation at the tops of stems and few blossom .
Rejuvenation Pruning
If you have n’t pruned your Formosan snowball bush in a long time — or ever — and it ’s develop tall and gangly with fewer flowers each twelvemonth , you could cut it to the background . Although this sounds drastic , and not urge for all plants , it ’s a form of rejuvenation pruning that some plants can handle .
Although your snowball bush will quickly begin to grow novel stems , it wo n’t likely get to bloom again until two year after you ’ve rationalize it all the way back .
