# Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium)

> A tough, tree-like viburnum with white spring flowers, purple-red fall color and sweet blue fruit.

Also called black haw, stagbush, sweet haw. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/blackhaw/

![Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) leaves, finely toothed with red stalks](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/blackhaw-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Robert H. Mohlenbrock, Public domain · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Viburnum_prunifolium_USDA1.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 12 to 15 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 9
- Grows wild in: The forest understory, dry uplands, old fields and edges
- Native range: 27 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI), south to [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA) and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC))
- Sun: Full, Part, Shade
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Berries, September to October
- First crop: 8 to 10 years
- Mature spread: 12 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Wildlife value, Edible, Fall color, Drought tolerant, Tolerates shade
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

Blackhaw looks like a small hawthorn without the thorns: horizontal branching, glossy leaves and clusters of dark fruit that persist into winter. It is one of the best native shrubs for a dry woodland edge or a mixed hedge. Plant it as a single-trunk small tree at a patio corner, or in a winter bird planting.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Blackhaw makes a shrub 12 to 15 feet high and 6 to 12 feet across, and an old plant trained to one trunk can reach 30 feet. Expect roughly a foot and a half of new height a year when it is young on an average site, the rate our growth estimator uses for a medium shrub.

Flat clusters of white flowers 4 to 5 inches across open in May and June. The fruit ripens blue-black in September and October, an oval about a third of an inch long that can be eaten off the bush or cooked into jam. Songbirds, squirrels and chipmunks take what you leave. The name black haw refers to its supposed likeness to the hawthorns, which are sometimes called red haws. The mature bark breaks into brown blocks, and the young stems are reddish with a pink bloom.

It grows wild from Connecticut west to Michigan and Kansas and south to Georgia and Texas, in woods, thickets and along streams.

## How to grow Blackhaw Viburnum

Blackhaw viburnum takes full sun, part shade or fairly deep shade, on dry to average soil, clay included. It makes a broad, tree-like shrub, so allow 10 feet between plants in a hedge and as much from a wall.

Plant in the dormant season. We ship saplings bare-root or in pots. Dig a shallow hole twice the root spread, keep the crown at the soil line, and refill with native soil rather than compost or peat. Mulch a ring out toward the branch tips, pulled back from the stems. No stake is needed. Seed has a double dormancy. It roots in summer warmth and sends up a shoot only after the next winter. Sow it outdoors in fall, or hold it and sow by early May, and seedlings appear the second spring after you collect it.

Water through the first two summers in dry weather, because blackhaw is slow to settle in. Rabbits clip young stems in winter and deer browse the tops, so fence the plant for two or three years.

Fruit set is heavier with a second, unrelated plant nearby, so put in two if you want the sweet blue-black fruit. It suckers slowly into a thicket. Fall color holds purple-red late, and the fruit hangs on after the leaves drop. Shape it right after bloom, since flowers form on old wood.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Viburnum prunifolium](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/viburnum-prunifolium/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Viburnum prunifolium](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=g240)
- [The Morton Arboretum: black-haw viburnum](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/black-haw-viburnum/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Viburnum prunifolium](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=VIPR)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Viburnum prunifolium, VIPR](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/plant-profile/VIPR)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Viburnum chapter](https://rngr.net/publications/wpsm/genera/v/at_download/file)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation field guide: Black Haw](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/black-haw)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: blackhaw, Viburnum prunifolium](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=129)
- [Native Plant Trust, Go Botany: Viburnum prunifolium](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/viburnum/prunifolium/)
- [Iowa State University Extension, Natural Resources: blackhaw viburnum](https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/blackhaw_viburnum.html)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Viburnum prunifolium](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.141845/Viburnum_prunifolium)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for heavy clay: which take it wet, which take it dry, and how to plant them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-and-shrubs-for-heavy-clay/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)

## Related

- We grow 11 other viburnums (Viburnum): [all of them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/index.html.md?q=viburnum)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Downy Arrowwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/downy-arrowwood/index.html.md), [Gray Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/gray-dogwood/index.html.md), [American Hazelnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-hazelnut/index.html.md) and [Sheep Laurel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sheep-laurel/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Slippery Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/slippery-elm/index.html.md), [Hop Hornbeam](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hop-hornbeam/index.html.md) and [Common Hackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-hackberry/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Bracted Arrowwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bracted-arrowwood/index.html.md), [Walter's Viburnum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/walter-viburnum/index.html.md), [Possumhaw Viburnum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/possumhaw-viburnum/index.html.md) and [Mapleleaf Viburnum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/mapleleaf-viburnum/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Blackhaw Viburnum, add ?species=blackhaw with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 3, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=blackhaw&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Blackhaw Viburnum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=blackhaw): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Blackhaw Viburnum as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=blackhaw (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Blackhaw Viburnum is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=blackhaw (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Blackhaw Viburnum needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=blackhaw:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Blackhaw Viburnum where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=blackhaw&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Blackhaw Viburnum goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=blackhaw&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Blackhaw Viburnum flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=blackhaw