Hi MapleGirl- Hey, you're right near me. I'm in RI. Nourse Farms would be a great place for you to order plants from. They too are in MA, have a great reputation (see here.), and I've never seen anyone here online have any complaints about them. No, I'm not affiliated with them... just a fan. I like weedblock, but like oviedo_apples was saying, you need to leave room for new canes to come up. I'd say a good fist size is fine around the blackberries and blueberries, but I wouldn't want weedblock around my raspberries. You want them to spread out and fill in. Once you get a good bed of raspberries going, very few weeds even dare to compete. Raspberries are usually so vigorous, they are the weed! If I were you, I'd give some compost to the blackberry and raspberries. Just spread it on an Inch or two thick around the plants. Both plants keep their roots high and really benefit from it. This coming from a guy who just added compost to his 15 beds of raspberries 2 weeks ago. I give my blueberries MirAcid, but with yours being so fragile right now, it's probably the last thing I'd do. With blackberries, you get berries on last year's canes. So, even if your blackberry were to really take off this year, you wouldn't get berries on those canes until next year. Unfortunately, the same is true if you got Home DepotÂs cartonized "Latham" raspberry: being a "summer bearing" raspberry means that it too produces berries on last years canes which means you get to wait an extra year for your berries. *sniff*. But, it doesnÂt have to be this way. I almost always recommend people go with an "everbearing" or "fall bearing" raspberry, which will give you berries the first year you plant it. Even so, people often still say you wonÂt get many berries the first year. But, I disagree. Yes, youÂll obviously get more berries in subsequent years (once the patch fills in), but itÂs still possible to get a respectable amount of berries the first year. Just to show you whatÂs possible, the pic below was from 5 "Prelude" raspberries ($3 each) from Nourse from last year. By your description, I'm getting the impression that these "sticks" are in pretty rough shape. Any chance you could take a picture for us? You'd need to post it somewhere else online, and just give us a link. IÂm starting to think that your biggest problem was your source. -Glenn New bed of 5 everbearing (Fall bearing) "Prelude" raspberries next to my volleyball court.

Well thank you, Viburnumvalley! Since you asked, I added photos of my Double-file & V.o. 'Nottcut' to my site. I also grow V.pragense, which I'm not crazy about, & 'carlessii'. I used to have V.o. 'Xanthocarpa' (I think it's called - the yellowberried form) - but it croaked years ago; we have lots of native V. prunefolium (Blackhaw) in our woods, & I love it for the form & blue/black fruit, but I don't cultivate it; would you know if there's a cultivated var. ? that would be a good addition to the group. Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden

Lesley: Check out the link below, or click over to the Shrubs forum and read it there. Though voluminous, it has most of what you want to know about viburnums and rationale of pollination. Speaking of voluminous: stop now if you don't have your athletic reading shoes on. You and vonyon are real close, hitting all around the concept of the conditions necessary for fine fruiting. I'll provide some more clarification of what I think you are looking for, information-wise. FIRST: there are some who claim that the only reason that anyone says you need two different plants with viburnums is so that they can sell you something. Hogwash. University professors, researchers, and people on GW don't have a financial interest in your garden. You can send me money if you want; I'd rather see you post (by this fall) that your viburnums are loaded with fruit because you installed several dissimilar individuals. NEXT: Viburnums are monoecious, as Vonyon states above. So are most of the Rosaceae family (Malus, Prunus, Pyrus, Amelanchier, Rosa, etc.) but many fruit tree growers will vouch for increased fruit production when multiple clones of a species are planted in proximity in order to provide cross-pollination opportunities. This implies (and researchers/scientists/someone besides me can verify better) SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY of individuals despite each plant having perfect flowers. This doesn't mean that a plant CANNOT pollinate itself, just that it does very little or poorly. There is anecdotal evidence (here on GW, and elsewhere) of some solitary plants of some species of viburnums that produce decent fruit crops, but it is so easy to plant a couple different ones that it defies logic not to. Co-opt a neighbor or some such if you don't personally have room. NEXT: The biggest confusion I observe here is the issue of species versus clone or cultivar. The best way to resolve this is to do a little reading in a biology or botany text, but I'll endeavor to layman-ize it. When someone says "I have the species Viburnum dentatum, not any clone" what they are saying is that they have an unnamed plant of arrowwood, not a named plant of arrowwood like Chicago Lustre. What they don't say (and maybe don't know) is whether they have a seedling of Viburnum dentatum. THAT MATTERS. If they know they have a seedling (grown from seed, not just a little plant), then they have a genetically distinct individual of Viburnum dentatum from a known provenance. If they just have an unnamed plant, it could just as well be a clone depending on propagation method. And on we go... NEXT: Propagation....every Chicago Lustre is (should be) identical to every other Chicago Lustre because the plant is reproduced VEGETATIVELY (clonally or asexually), generally from cuttings that are then rooted. Species plants of arrowwood can also be produced this way. This is the trap that many individuals seem to fall into, in these threads, when claiming that they have "the species" and not necessarily knowing if they have seedlings or simply unnamed but clonally-produced plants. When plants are produced from seed (SEXUALLY) this means that there has been some genetic mixing between two parent plants resulting in seedlings that are related to but not identical to the parent producing the seed. Individually, these seedlings are no more or less capable of self-pollination. Are you worn out yet? If you purchase and plant more than one Viburnum dentatum that were grown from seed (similar but not identical), then these will be fine for providing cross-pollination conditions if they have overlapping bloom times. NEXT: Your question about buying plants from Oregon and from North Dakota was the best one yet. Overlapping bloom times is the critical factor. If they bloom with a month separating them, no dice. If they overlap, you should have oodles of fruit. NEXT: Provenance is important, especially to northern gardeners and those who want to respect their efforts to reinvigorate native landscapes. You want a plant that is known to survive your conditions (soils, moisture, low temps), and some want plants that are known to have naturally occurred in their area. Viburnum dentatum has an extremely wide range of natural occurrence (provenance); a glance at Hightshoe's text shows a distribution map shaded from Cape Cod MA down the east coast to northern FL, and along the Gulf coast to east TX. Interior areas shaded include most of those states bordering the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, as well as minor areas in AR, MO, TN, KY, and OH. This map is just for V. dentatum. Varietas of V. dentatum and its allies (like V. molle, V. rafinesquianum, V. recognitum, and V. bracteatum) extend this range even further. You want to know these things when selecting plants for ND. The different clones of Viburnum dentatum come from many areas; no wonder they don't all bloom at the same time! This applies not only to my garden bloom times (I have about a dozen different V. dentatum), but to the difference in WHEN they bloom for me and when they'll bloom for you. For me, arrowwoods generally bloom in May-June; for you, that may be a month or more later. The SEQUENCE of identical plants' bloom times should remain constant, though. If in KY mine proceed from Cardinal to Indian Summer to Northern Burgundy to Autumn Jazz, then you should have the same order of bloom in ND. NEXT: One of the viburnum threads over on Shrubs refers to several folks who will be again tracking bloom times this year, in order to help the GWers flailing about trying to match up some of their favorite fruiting plants. This will make life simpler in some respects (shouldn't be tough to have a start to finish list of all the clones' bloom times) but more confusing in others (seedlings, if not of known provenance, are going to be all over the place time-wise). Are you still awake? Isn't this fun? My personal goal is to grow as many of all the viburnums as I can here in KY. Not just clones, but seedlings of known provenance too. Any that I learn to be invasive here will be eradicated, but there will still be many to permanently cultivate. These are great plants to look at, but also to learn from so that others can enjoy them successfully as well. Here is a link that might be useful: Viburnum dentatum and friends

I've had a 'Blue Muffin for many years with no berries. Then, 2 years ago, it berried. None since. No explanation at all.