Viburnum plicatum St Keverne - Japanese Snowball

Viburnum plicatum 'St Keverne', or Japanese Snowball, is an ornamental bush prized for its majestic habit, long white spring flowering, and stunning autumn colours. It brings an elegant and colourful touch to the garden throughout the seasons. This exquisitely beautiful cultivar is easy to acclimatise in temperate climates, in any good garden soil, and can even be grown in a large container.

Viburnum plicatum 'St Keverne' belongs to the Viburnaceae family. The species is native to China and Japan. The St Keverne cultivar was selected, as its name suggests, in St Keverne, in the Cornwall region, England. It is a large deciduous bush with slow growth that reaches a height of 2.50 to 4 m, depending on growing conditions, and a similar spread. It is characterised by its wide, dense, and bushy habit, with horizontally spreading branches that give it a rounded and tiered shape.

The flowering of the Japanese Snowball Bush 'St Keverne' is spectacular, with flattened cymes measuring 8 cm wide appearing in May and continuing into June. The flowers are white, forming a kind of flat-topped umbel, with an outer crown composed of large sterile flowers and an inner cluster of small fertile florets. The petals of the larger ray florets sometimes curl upwards, resembling white butterflies perched on the inflorescences. The green foliage consists of ovate leaves with deeply furrowed veins reaching 10 to 15 cm in length. It turns reddish-purple to wine-red in autumn, offering a beautiful range of colours before falling. This bush produces few fruits, those that do form are small and red.

Viburnum plicatum 'St Keverne' can be used in various ways in the garden. It is stunning as a living hedge, in a mixed border with other bushes, or as a standalone specimen to highlight its elegant habit and abundant flowering. It also adapts well to container cultivation on a large terrace. To accompany it in the garden, consider, for example, Cornus alba 'Sibirica Variegata', with its stunning variegated foliage, Hydrangea quercifolia for its large lobed leaves and white panicles of flowers, Mahonia x media 'Charity' for its evergreen foliage and yellow flowers in winter, and Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood' for its beautifully coloured foliage.