Viburnum obovatum 'densa' (Walters Viburnum) dormancy requirement?

[Halifax]

Hi Friends,
I have a Walter's viburnum Viburnum obovatum 'densa' in bonsai culture, having inherited it from an elder nurseryman last year. He passed away shortly after he gave me the tree, telling me only that it was collected in Florida and it is native to Zones 7 to 10. Based on that info, I did not put it into winter cold frame storage and I have been keeping it indoors with my tropicals. It seems to be doing fine, but I am concerned that it is being deprived of winter dormancy and that may ultimately hurt it. Help?
Thanks!
Harry

 

[SockUnicorn]

Dude. Zones 7-10. You throw that thing outside in the freeze and its toasticles.

 

[Halifax]

Thanks. My thinking was that it may have to go into a mellower cool storage with trees like my sequoia and dawn redwood. Thoughts?

 

[0soyoung]

I can offer that my wife has has a pieris cutting growing in a 1 inch pot sitting on the widow sill over the kitchen sink for 6 years now. Pieris is listed in gardening resources as a zone 5-8 cold tolerant plant. It is also highly shade tolerant. I have never found anything about this being allowed, but there it is.

So I guess you'll just have to find out about your inherited viburnum since you have no idea how your benefactor kept it. If it does need some bud chill time, it will become noticeably weaker over the next season or few seasons. Vitality should recover with winter chilling in the company of your sequoia and dawn redwood over the following winter.

 

[JoeH]

I have seen them go thru some serious freeing temps in FLA. 2009 we had a week straight of well below freezing and this past year 26 degrees and then below freezing till 10 am. They do just fine here without major chilling some years so I imagine that is not an issue either. I believe they are hardy to zone 4.

 

[Halifax]

Thanks very much! The takeaway is to get it into that cool storage next winter (~40-45deg) but that it likely won't become ex-bonsai and push up daisies this year.

As a forest ecologist, I work with a lot of viburnum understory (shade-tolerant) species in New England, but I had never seen this particular variety before.

I much appreciate the help, Friends.