Shrub · Adoxaceae
Arrowwood Viburnum
Viburnum dentatum
A native shrub layered with creamy-white flowers, blue-black berries, and fiery fall leaves through the year.
Full sun
Every 5–10 days
USDA 2–8
5–10 ft · 1.5–3 m
Overview
Arrowwood viburnum builds itself from straight, slim young stems, the same ramrod shoots that Native peoples once cut for arrow shafts and that still give the plant its name. It is a native of eastern North America, and it holds its frame through winters down to -40°F (-40°C). Up close the wood reads lean and upright, a thicket of pale, true-running canes.
The year writes itself across the foliage and fruit. In late spring, flat-topped creamy-white flower clusters lie like lace plates across the canopy, and by fall they give way to clusters of small, round blue-black berries. The leaves close the season by burning from green into yellow, orange, and red, and the birds pick the dark fruit from the branches as it softens.
Settled in, it stands as a rounded, multi-stemmed shrub of 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 m), the canes fanning out and crowding into a dense thicket as suckers rise at the base. The one mark against the leaves is a beetle, covered below. Hold that in check and the foliage stays full and clean.
Care
The short version: arrowwood holds full green leaves in full sun to part shade in almost any well-drained soil, takes water while it roots in, and shows viburnum leaf beetle eggs as rows of scars on the bare twigs in winter.
Light
Arrowwood colors best in full sun to part shade. Full sun packs the canopy with the heaviest white flower plates, the most blue-black fruit, and the deepest fall reds, while a spot under afternoon shade still fills out and reads well at a woodland edge.
Water
The roots want soil kept consistently moist, soaked deeply while the shrub establishes and through drought. Once anchored it shrugs off a dry stretch, so the watering lands every 5 to 10 days depending on heat and soil.
Soil
Few shrubs root so willingly across soil types. Arrowwood takes hold in clay, loam, sand, or shallow rocky ground that drains, and the roots run through a wide pH from 5.5 to 8.0, acidic to alkaline.
Temperature
The canes are cold-hardy down through -40°F to 100°F (-40°C to 38°C), spanning USDA zones 2 through 8. Hard winter cold leaves the wood unharmed, so it stands almost anywhere in the temperate range.
Humidity
Air moisture barely touches this shrub outdoors. Air movement matters more, since open, breezy growth dries the leaf surfaces and keeps pests off the foliage.
Feeding
The wood asks little in decent ground. A balanced slow-release fertilizer or compost worked in at early spring is plenty, and an established shrub in good soil often runs on nothing.
Pruning
The canes take a trim right after flowering in late spring to shape or thin the crown, with suckers pulled to hold the base. The key work is reading the bare winter twigs: any carrying the scarred rows of viburnum leaf beetle eggs are cut out and burned between October and spring.
Repotting
This is a landscape shrub of full canes, not a pot plant, so repotting rarely comes up. A specimen held in a nursery pot moves on once the roots start to circle the wall or water runs straight through without soaking in.
Size & spacing
The mature frame is a rounded shrub 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 m) tall and near as broad, the canes fanning to a spread of 6 to 10 feet (1.8 to 3 m). Give it that width, or more where a second plant stands close for pollination.
When to plant
Arrowwood is woody and fully hardy, built of solid canes rather than tender seedlings, so nothing starts indoors. New plants go out in spring or fall, the white flower plates open in late spring, and the berries darken from late summer into fall for the birds.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Spring or fall
- Harvest: Creamy-white flat-topped flower clusters in late spring (roughly March-May depending on region), followed by blue-black berries in late summer to fall
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 2–8
Temperature: down to -46°C
Troubleshooting
Arrowwood is tough in the wood, and nearly all its troubles read on the leaf surface. One pest chews the blades to ruin and another just glazes and freckles them. Match the look of the damage below, then move on the leaf beetle before it strips the green away.
Leaf blades eaten to lace, with only the veins remaining
Leaves reduced to a fine green skeleton, every soft blade gone and only the rib and veins left strung between them, mark the viburnum leaf beetle, which favors arrowwood above all other hosts. The larvae chew through spring and the adults gnaw on after, until a hard year leaves bare twigs where full foliage stood. The egg-pocked twigs come out over winter, the larvae brush off small plants, and lady beetles and lacewings clean up the rest.
Fix:
- Prune out and destroy egg-infested twigs between October and spring before eggs hatch
- Hand-remove or knock larvae off small plants
- Encourage natural predators such as lady beetles, lacewings, assassin bugs, and spined soldier bugs
- Treat heavy larval infestations with an appropriate labeled insecticide if needed
Stippled, yellowing leaves glazed with sticky black mold
Leaves freckled with pale stippling, yellowing and warping, and glazed with a sticky shine that darkens into black sooty mold signal a whitefly colony packed onto the undersides, with their honeydew feeding the film. A hard jet of water knocks the small white insects loose into the air, and insecticidal soap worked under the leaves finishes the survivors. The mottling looks alarming against the foliage but rarely scars the shrub for long.
Fix:
- Spray foliage with a strong stream of water to dislodge insects
- Apply insecticidal soap or horticultural oil to leaf undersides
- Encourage natural predators
Toxicity
The plant is non-toxic in leaf, stem, and berry alike, which suits a garden shared with pets or children. The ASPCA lists it as safe for cats, dogs, and horses, and the dark fruit feeds birds rather than harming them. The raw berries pucker the mouth too sharply for people to enjoy, but they poison no one.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats None
A cat that mouths a leaf takes no harm, since the ASPCA lists viburnum as non-toxic to cats. Should one work through a wad of the foliage, the worst is a passing upset stomach, the same as with any plant.
Dogs None
Dogs are safe under the ASPCA listing, so a leaf or a chewed berry does no damage. A large mouthful of green pulp may bring on mild, short-lived stomach upset and nothing worse.
Horses None
Horses can crop the leaves and twigs near this shrub without trouble, since viburnum carries no toxin known to affect them.
Rabbits None
Rabbits nibble arrowwood foliage in the wild with no poisoning risk. A pet rabbit handles any new green better when it comes in slowly to keep its digestion settled.
Livestock None
Cattle, goats, and sheep can browse the leaves and twigs safely. The shrub stands as a common native along pasture edges with no record of poisoning stock.
Birds None
Birds do better than tolerate it, since the small blue-black berries ripen into a prized fall food that draws songbirds in to pick the fruit clean.
People None
The plant poisons no one, but the raw berries pucker the mouth with a tart, astringent bite and are not worth eating in quantity. The fruit is best left hanging for the birds.
No special handling required; as with any plant, ingesting large amounts of foliage or berries may cause mild stomach upset in pets.
Varieties
Most garden arrowwoods are named selections, each picked for a tighter frame, a heavier load of berries, or a brighter turn of fall color. These are the forms seen most often.
Blue Muffin
A compact form at 5 to 7 feet that hangs heavy with rounded blue berries, the crop fullest when a second arrowwood stands nearby to cross-pollinate it.
Chicago Lustre
A vigorous, upright form carrying glossy dark green leaves with a polished sheen, and reliable late-season bloom.
Autumn Jazz
A vase-shaped shrub kept for the moment its foliage burns through vivid yellow, orange, and red in fall.
Companions
Arrowwood fruits far better with a second, different arrowwood nearby to pollinate it, and pairs well with shade plants at its feet. Keep it away from other beetle-prone viburnums.
Plant near
A different arrowwood viburnum cultivar: Provides cross-pollination that dramatically improves berry set.
Native ferns and shade perennials: Fill the shaded base of the shrub and thrive in the same moist, well-drained soil.
Keep apart
Other highly VLB-susceptible viburnums (e.g. V. opulus): Clustering preferred hosts together can concentrate viburnum leaf beetle pressure.
How to propagate
You can multiply arrowwood three ways, from quick and easy to slow and stubborn. Cuttings and layering give you an exact copy of the parent; seed is a long project for the patient.
Stem cuttingsModerate
Early to mid summer · 6 to 10 weeks to root
Cuttings copy a named cultivar down to the leaf. In early to mid summer, softwood cuttings of the fresh, still-green new growth take the cut at the base, a dip of rooting hormone, and a humid cover, then push white roots over the next 6 to 10 weeks.
SeedDemanding
Collect ripe fruit in fall · Several months to over a year (needs warm then cold stratification)
Seed pulled from the ripe blue-black fruit in fall is the slow road. Each seed locks into complex double dormancy, needing a warm spell then a cold one before it stirs, so the seedlings break ground unevenly across several months to more than a year.
LayeringEasy
Spring to summer · One growing season or more
Layering is the easiest route, and the shrub leans toward it on its own. From spring through summer, a low branch pressed flat to the soil sends roots from where it touches over a full growing season or longer. Natural suckers push up around the base as fresh shoots, ready to dig and divide.
Myths
The berries are poisonous to pets and people.
Those small blue-black drupes look ominous but are not, since the ASPCA lists viburnum as non-toxic to cats, dogs, and horses, leaving the fruit no threat to the animals around the garden. The berries are valuable bird food, not a hazard, though their flesh is far too tart for anyone to enjoy raw by the handful.
One arrowwood viburnum will always fruit heavily on its own.
A single shrub tends to hang only a sparse scatter of berries. Cross-pollination from a second, genetically different arrowwood swells fruit set sharply, so two or more of different cultivars or seedlings load the branches with a full show of fruit.