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Basic Information about this tree

Scientific Name: Viburnum trilobum

Common Name: Highbush Cranberry, American Highbush Cranberry

Deciduous – drops its leaves in Fall

Sunlight / Moisture / Soil Preferences 

Viburnum trilobum tolerates a wide range of soils, but prefers the consistent moisture of its native habitat: moist woods and lake margins. While it grows in full sun to shade, it thrives in partial shade.

Flowering type:  Highbush cranberries are hermaphroditic (monoecious), meaning they have both male and female organs and are self-fertile. This means that a single plant’s flowers can pollinate themselves, so there’s no need for another plant to provide pollen. However, they produce more berries if there are multiple plants in a garden because each flower requires cross-pollination with another flower. 

Pollination strategy: Wind

Native

Age Estimate / Health:  3 years, purchased summer 2024

Longevity: 10-25 years

Mature Size: 8-15 ft

Details –

Flower: Flower shape: 5-petals Cluster type: flat
Flat clusters 2 to 5 inches across develop from new lateral branchlets of one-year old branches, emerging after the leaves. Flowers are 5-petaled and have 2 forms: around the edge of the cluster is a ring of 5 to 12, showy, bright white flowers up to 1 inch across; in the center of the cluster are dozens of creamy white, 1/8 to ¼-inch flowers. The large flowers are sterile, lacking stamens or pistils, and the small flowers are fertile, with 5 long, pale stamens.

Fruit is a shiny, berry-like drupe, ¼ to ½ inch across, turning translucent red at maturity, and containing a single seed.

Leaves are simple and opposite, the blade up to 4½ inches long and nearly as wide, slightly rounded to straight across at the base, with 3 lobes each tapering to a pointed tip and can resemble a maple leaf. Edges are coarsely and irregularly toothed, or may be nearly toothless. Upper surface is dark green and usually sparsely hairy though may become smooth; the lower surface is paler with fine hairs especially along the veins. Leaf stalks are about 1 inch long, smooth or with a few hairs near the blade, and a shallow groove along its length. At the tip where the stalk meets the blade are 2 to 4 small glands, round to oval in cross-section, flat to convex at the tip. At the base of the leaf stalk is a pair of thread-like appendages (stipules) up to ¼ inch long.

Branches: New twigs are mostly hairless, green to reddish with raised lenticels (pores), turning tan to grayish brown. Older bark is gray to gray-brown, thin, and smooth to slightly rough. Main stems are up to about 2 inches diameter, typically multiple from base, sometimes arching and rooting where the tip touches the ground, sometimes root suckering.

Value for wildlife

This shrub supports wildlife year-round. The blooms of spring, which are clusters of tiny florets surrounded by larger florets, attract butterflies, bees and other pollinators. During the growing season, highbush cranberry is a larval host plant for the spring azure butterfly. In the fall and winter, animals, including birds, snack on the shrub’s bright red berries, which resemble its namesake cranberries, although the two plants are not closely related. Cedar waxwings, in particular, are reportedly big fans of these berries. Fortunately, rabbits and deer seem to mostly leave the plant alone.

Uses for humans

The fresh berries are bitter but not as bitter as berries found on some related species, so they are sometimes used for jams and jellies as a substitute for traditional cranberries.

Homeowner’s Corner

Planting highbush cranberry along the edges of the garden provides wildlife value, screening, and pleasant transitions between garden rooms. It works well in shrub borders, foundations, woodland margins, and as a hedge or screen. It offers year-round garden interest—from the white to pinkish lacy buds and flowers of spring, through the golden-olive green to purplish-to-red-tinged foliage of autumn, to the bright red berries of winter. Although the shrubs flower profusely in spring, they’ll produce even more berries if multiple plants are available in the garden; each flower is “perfect”—with both male and female parts—but self-infertile, so it requires cross-pollination with another flower.

Highbush cranberry can be propagated both from seed and cuttings. The shrub often reseeds in the garden, although small seedlings are easily pulled or transplanted. Shrubs can be started from nursery stock or other gardeners’ cuttings. It’s not a fussy young plant, except for its water needs.

These shrubs grow relatively fast—up to 3 feet per year. Annual pruning will maintain the desired height and width.  High-bush cranberry does best in well-drained, moist rich, loamy soils, but it does tolerate a wide range of soil types. It also tolerates occasional flooding, road salt, and wet sites. Plant highbush cranberry in full sun to partial shade,  it  in partial shade. When planted in full sun, highbush cranberry may need regular watering until established to satisfy its moisture needs.

Viburnum crown borer can cause stem dieback and viburnum leaf beetle can cause complete defoliation of the shrub. Highbush cranberry can survive from the defoliation and leaf out normal next season but can die from constant defoliation.