Sounds like a contradiction in terms. But for several of the marvelous viburnum family, sterile encircling fertile transmutes to haunting beauty in the flowers. Large white florets at the perimeter of flat cymes emerge first around a mass of tight fertile buds, and persist as the tiny fuzzy flowers open to do their work to produce bright berries of red or purplish black.

Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum (Doublefile Viburnum) presides as the most glamorous of the bunch. Selection “Mariesii’, known since the 1870s, presents lush rows of two to three inch blossoms held high above its broad horizontal branches as if floating. “Shasta”, a big cultivar from the late 1970s that reaches six feet by twelve, is smothered in huge showy blossoms five or six inches wide. Red, bird seductive berries mature to black. Hardy zones 5 to 8.

V. sargentii (Sargent Viburnum), pictured here in two colors, produces cheerful, translucent red berries. Its flowers array themselves thickly all over the bush. Alas, in Maine where I garden they’re sometimes attacked by little black, under-the-leaf worms that can strip green from the leaves overnight and leave bare venous fibers (same for the wild V. triloba elsewhere on our property.) This is the only incidence throughout the year when I stoop to poison, but a vigilant eye and timely spray does the trick,and I love this plant and its gracious maple shaped leaves. Hardy zones 3-7.