Winter Rabbit Damage on Pink Beauty Doublefile Viburnum - February 2026

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Last year, I planted a pair of Pink Beauty Viburnum shrubs in the backyard.  One on each side of the garden, in the rear of the beds, pretty close to the fence line.  The first one went in on the northside behind the Dawn Redwood.  The second one went in on the southside closer to the wine barrel water feature.   They seemed to do fine in their first year and even showed some berries come late Summer.  This being their first Winter, I'm observing how it is overwintering for the first time.  And, I've come to realize that I 'missed' on protecting these from rabbits this Winter. 

I forgot the lesson I learned with my Chicago Lustre Arrowwood Viburnum their first season:  These need rabbit cages until they get to a certain height and size that rabbits (dang rabbits!) can't affect them too much.  

These didn't have cages, and in the photo below, you can see the rabbit pressure: gnawed-off lower limbs.  The good news, it appears that the top of this shrub are in-tact and are showing some buds set in the Fall.  See below for current state of this flowering shrub in late Winter:

Pink Beauty Doublefile Viburnum Rabbit Pressure In Winter

I'll grab a photo of the other one and post it.  That one suffered a bit more than this one on the southside.  Also, of note...these are Doublefile Viburnum, which I've written about a bit over the years.  I have three tree-form Doublefile Viburnums in the garden, which I really like - not just because the tree-form nature protects them from rabbits.  (note to self:  buy a few more of those if they show up at Menards this year). Here is a post from 2022 that was the beginning of my Doublefile Viburnum journey.  

Also, a note in the photo above:  plenty of leaf litter hanging around.  Mostly oak leaves, which are the hardest to break down/take the longest.    I'll leave this for as long as I can, but I'll likely blow it out into the yard, run it over with the mower a few times and then try to blow the 'leaf litter' back onto the beds to amend the soil with some of this organic material.   

Also...something to think about for 2026:  the understory of this shrub might be a good place to pilot a good-sized carex matrix groundcover planting.  I can easily fit 10-12 carex around this Viburnum to serve as a knitted-together groundcover planting.  

Location: Downers Grove, IL, USA

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