Sweet Viburnum Viburnum odoratissimum (Viburnum awabuki)

Sweet viburnum is the plant most often specified when a fence line has to disappear. Large glossy leathery leaves on a dense fast growing frame, flushing bronze on new growth, block a view from ground level up in a way finer foliage cannot manage. Clusters of small white flowers open in spring on plants that are not clipped hard, carrying a heavy sweet scent, followed by red fruit. Left alone it becomes a small tree, which is what makes it the choice for screening a two storey outlook.

Fast is not the same as tough

Plant it closer than looks sensible if you want a screen in a hurry, around 80cm to a metre apart, then be ready to feed and water it while it closes up. It takes full sun to part shade and grows quickly, but quick is not the same as tough. A large leaf area loses a great deal of water on a hot day, and the reason sweet viburnum browns off in narrow strips beside driveways and against west facing brick is almost always that someone treated it as a drought hardy screen.

Reflected heat, a shallow strip of soil, and an irrigation line switched off after the first year will scorch the leaf margins, thin the base and leave a hedge you can see straight through. Give it soil improved with compost, a deep mulch, proper watering through the first two summers, and some water in heatwaves after that. Viburnum thrips is the other thing to watch, showing as silvering or bronzing spreading across older leaves, and it moves through a hedge quickly in a dry spring.

The species against the selected form

All four viburnums in this range are evergreen hedging types rather than the deciduous flowering kinds. Within them, the species and its selected form do slightly different jobs. Emerald Lustre is a named selection grown for uniformity, which matters when a long run has to grow at one rate and hold one leaf colour end to end. The species is more variable plant to plant, no drawback at all in an informal screen or a mixed boundary planting where an even line is not the goal. For a hedge held at chest height instead, Sandankwa Viburnum is the smaller leaved plant. More in privacy screening.

Two cuts a year, and what clipping costs you in flower

Trim twice a year, once after flowering in late spring and again in late summer, to hold a clean face; a third light cut suits a formal hedge in a warm district. Take the sides in as well as the top. If you want the flowers, leave a season between hard cuts, since clipping removes the wood that carries them. Feed in early spring and midsummer with a complete slow release fertiliser, water it in, and top up mulch after each application, since a fast grower carrying this much leaf empties the top layer of soil quickly.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 11 sizes, from 100mm up to 45L, priced from $16.95 to $309.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to fast growing screening plants.