Koreanspice Viburnum Care: Growing Koreanspice Viburnum Plants

(Image credit: Martina Simonazzi)

The Koreanspice viburnum is a medium sized deciduous shrub that produces beautiful, fragrant flowers. With its small size, dense growing pattern and showy flowers, it’s an excellent choice for a specimen shrub as well as border plant. So how do you go about growing Koreanspice viburnum in your garden? Keep reading to learn more Koreanspice viburnum information.

Koreanspice Viburnum Information

Koreanspice viburnum (Viburnum carlesii) is one of over 150 known Viburnum plant species and cultivars. While viburnums can be both deciduous and evergreen and reach up to 30 feet in height, Koreanspice viburnum plants are deciduous and known for their relatively small, compact growing habit. They tend to grow to between 3 and 5 feet tall and wide, but they can reach as high as 8 feet in ideal growing conditions. Koreanspice viburnum plants produce 2 to 3-inch wide clusters of small flowers that begin pink and open to white in early to mid-spring. The flowers give off a rich scent that is similar to spice cake. These flowers are followed by blue-black berries. The 4-inch leaves are ridged and deep green. In autumn, they turn deep red to purple.

How to Grow Koreanspice Viburnums

The best conditions for growing Koreanspice viburnum plants include moist but well-draining soil and full sun to partial shade. Koreanspice viburnum care is very minimal. The plants don’t need much in the way of watering, and they suffer from very few pest and disease problems. They are hardy in USDA zones 4 through 9, but they may need some winter protection, especially from the wind, in colder zones. Koreanspice viburnum plants should be pruned in the spring immediately after flowering has ended. The pruned green cuttings can be used effectively as starts if you’re looking to propagate new plants.

Liz Baessler
Senior Editor

The only child of a horticulturist and an English teacher, Liz Baessler was destined to become a gardening editor. She has been with Gardening Know how since 2015, and a Senior Editor since 2020. She holds a BA in English from Brandeis University and an MA in English from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. After years of gardening in containers and community garden plots, she finally has a backyard of her own, which she is systematically filling with vegetables and flowers.