Above, you see a doublefile viburnum in yesterday morning’s rain. The umbrella-shaped flowers are now at their peak, clustering in cascades like white water or layers of agitated wind-blown snow. Below is another doublefile later that day in the late, lowering sun:
Although natives of Asia, doublefiles are very comfortable here and give year-long pleasure. As a bonus, they don’t seem to interest our almost insatiable deer at all. In the spring, their serrated, pleated and richly veined leaves come early and are thick and vibrant green; soon thousands of small, light-colored buds appear. They’re flower-rich in the summer, as you see.
In the fall and early winter, their leaves turn indescribable hues of purple and red and thousands of shiny black and red berries sprout up. The berries attract flocks of birds. When the leaves fall in winter, their woody infrastructures often seem to be works of art. As do the fully-flowered summer shrubs:
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on June 15, 2026.)