Viburnum trilobum is unusually beautiful with its soft maple-like leaves, producing white lacecap flowers mid-May to mid-June, followed by bunches of shiny bright red berries by August, which can be harvested in autumn.
It grows to eight or ten feet high. A young bush becomes in one year big & bushy at seven feet tall. They can be planted in full sun and also grow in shade.
The berries are not tasty, being so tart, but make excellent jellies & jams & pancake syrups & sauces. Picked early in autumn they are terribly bitter & may need to be "cut" with sweeter berries to make a good jelly, but they have a lot of natural pectin early in autumn so will not need any pectin added to jell up excellently. Picked after the first or second hard frost, they are softer & not so rich in pectin hence much more palatable. It may sometimes seem like birds simply won't eat them until there is nothing else to choose from, but partly the reason birds wait to eat them late in autumn or in early winter is because that's when they're tastiest.
Hardy zone 2-8
Sowing instructions:
Best sown in a cold frame (late fall directly outside). Can be planted in any soil. Cover only slightly. Germination will occur in spring. If sown indoors, stratification is required. 2 months warm then 3 months cold stratification and they can still take 18 months to germinate. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and grow them on in a cold frame or greenhouse. Plant out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer of the following year
