Chicago Lustre Arrowwood Viburnum Makes a Great Garden Backdrop

Arrowwood viburnums (Viburnum dentatum) make excellent backdrops to smaller garden shrubs and flowering perennials, because of their size, upright stems and dark-green, densely held leaves. The cultivar named Chicago Lustre has exceptionally glossy foliage, providing a light-reflecting quality that enhances the shrub's role. A good wildlife plant, it offers spring flowers to pollinators and autumn berries to garden birds. Both features are very pleasing to the human eye, as well. Once established, Chicago Lustre copes with heat and drought better than others of its species.

Chicago Lustre arrowwood viburnum was added to Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s list of Gold Medal Plants in 2023. Gold Medal Plants must be excellent and easy performers in the Mid-Atlantic, where climate challenges include intense humidity. For 2023, the selection panel also made ecological value, hardiness and seasonal beauty criteria for the award. 

Common name: Chicago Lustre arrowwood viburnum

Botanical name: Viburnum dentatum ‘Synnestvedt’ 

Exposure: Full sun to part shade

Flowers/fruits: White flowers appear in spring. Black fruits ripen in autumn, attracting birds.

Related: Read about doublefile viburnum. 

Foliage: The bright sheen of the leaves is what gave Chicago Lustre viburnum its trade name. Leaves are broadly rounded, with toothed edges. The spring and summer color is dark green. They turn red-purple in autumn.

Habit: This viburnum is a deciduous shrub that reaches 10 to 12 feet tall and wide at maturity. It has an upright, rounded shape thanks to its many stems that grow vertically.

Related: For a smaller, fragrant shrub, try Spice Girl Koreanspice viburnum.

Origin: The species Viburnum dentatum is native to stream banks and woodlands of the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and southern New England regions of the United States. The cultivar Chicago Lustre (or 'Synnestvedt') was discovered in 1967 among plants growing at the Morton Arboretum, near Chicago, Illinois. 

How to grow it: Plant this viburnum in full sun to part shade and well-drained soil. It prefers regular moisture but can tolerate some drought once established. This is a markedly heat-tolerant viburnum that does not tend to suffer leaf scorch in hot summers. For heavy fruit set, plant a different V. dentatum cultivar near Chicago Lustre, such as Blue Muffin (‘Christom’). USDA Zones 3 through 8.

Image credit: F.D. Richards/CC BY-SA 2.0