Chinese snowball (Vibernum macrocephalum sterile), blooms well after a good rain.

There are so many beautiful shrubs and trees blooming right now, not to mention all the lovely bulbs and flowers, making it extremely hard for me to decide what to show you this week.

Most of you probably have seen these beautiful old-fashioned Chinese snowball shrubs somewhere in your life, but do you have one? There is one in the Heritage Rose Garden and a small one in the IDEA Garden, but I just had to show you mine. I haven’t seen one so big since I lived in Birmingham, Alabama. Over there, snowballs are in most yards and grow huge. I fell in love with them while living there in the ’70s.

Many people confuse them with hydrangeas, but hydrangeas bloom later and the foliage is entirely different. Snowballs are viburnums (Viburnum macrocephalum sterile), but old-fashioned snowball or Chinese snowball is the usual name for them.

This one is about 15 to 20 feet tall and 8 feet wide. It is completely loaded with these magnificent round balls of blooms — just knock-out gorgeous. I will cut it back some after bloom time to make it bush out more. I have had this one about 10 years and it blooms every year, but all the rain made it fantastic this spring. The balls of flowers are huge and there are myriads.

Chinese snowballs need good, well-drained soil and lots of sunshine. They enjoy good water, but mine survives in drought, blooming smaller and less, but shows itself with good rain. The rest of the year the shrub has attractive leaves, giving good texture, and in fall the leaves turn yellow to red.

Viburnums have always been among my favorite shrubs, and this one is a favorite.