I have to ask - did these 3 plants bloom?

The winterberry and bayberry did bloom - just little blooms right along the stems. Sumac - didn't notice anything on them.

Ok, no bloom = no berries. The sumac made need to be older, assuming it is getting enough sun.

On the winterberry, do you have a male/female pair? Or do you just have a single winterberry? Even if you got a female, I mean to say, do you have something for her to pollinate with?

Apparently bayberry can be monoecious or dioecious. Again, do you have just the one bayberry?

I planted 5 winterberries and 5 bayberries. The nursery ad says they can't determine sex as they are grown from seed.

They're planted six feet apart or so, plenty close enough if i have both males and females. Maybe all of the plants need to be older.

Well, statistically speaking, I would think you would have to have some of each in there. Well, all I can say is better luck next year. Supposedly you can use a hand lens to determine the sex of the plant by looking at the flower, although the linked site says another observation is that male flowers are in clusters and female flowers are solitary or 2's and 3's.

There is a picture of the flowers at this site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ilex verticillata

Found some more. Scroll down to flowers. The big picture is a male (click the pictures to enlarge and see the male/female indication). Small pictures: left one is male, right one is female. The difference is noticeable - probably won't need a hand lens after all.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures

If it was quite cool when they both flowered, then maybe whatever insect is the pollinator wasn't flying around. I am inclined to counsel patience.

Thanks for the links.

Some of the holly flowers i remember looked like the female ones, so i may be in luck.

I grew "Winter Red" with a pollinator at my previous house, starting with container plants. I was really happy with them. My current home has a much bigger yard to experiment with, so ive tried to save money using bare-root, liner size plants.

"I have dreams of creating an ultimate wildlife sanctuary..."

Sounds like you have good counsel above on patience and learn to ID the flowers on your seedlings for the winterberries, sumacs, and bayberries.

But...no viburnums?

Oh, gosh yes, i have viburnums - cranberry bush, viburnum lantana, doublefile, mohawk, winterturh, nannyberry, and arrowwood. Some of these are just too young to fruit well yet.

Wayfaring tree (viburnum lantana) is one i like, it is somewhat course looking but easy to grow, takes drought. Cranberry bush is easy too, don't have to worry about pollinators - i need to plant another arrowwood, mine is fruiting sparsely by itself. The only other viburnums ive thought much about are linden viburnums, would require several of those for pollination.

If you only have one each of the viburnum selections you've mentioned above, you will always have far less fruit than you might.

Viburnums are notoriously self-incompatible, meaning they pollinate more successfully when there is another plant of the same or similar species nearby to cross-pollinate with.

Saying "...don't have to worry about pollinators..." means you got some fruit? Try planting another Viburnum trilobum - your cedar waxwings will thank you.

If you are really interested in helping birds, plant a lot more arrowwoods. I have been watching dozens and dozens of kingbirds wheeling and swooping over my shrubs the past week, slowly but surely relieving me of that wonderful midsummer dark blue fruit display.

"...an ultimate wildlife sanctuary..."

Load up on more of the natives, which is what your wildlife will be anchored by.

Viburnum cassinoides
Viburnum acerifolium
Viburnum prunifolium
Viburnum rufidulum

Add these in to further distribute the resources across the seasons, and support more and varied wildlife.

I really like Viburnum acerifolium, the maple leaf viburnum. It has great fall color.

I swear that it helps my Viburnum dentatum get better pollination because for me they both bloom at the same time. The V. acerifolium starts blooming about 2 weeks earlier on the lower side of the plant and the earlier blooms never set fruit; but the blooms that occur at the same time as the V. dentatum blooms ... they always set fruit. The V. dentatum sets fruit too.

The V. cassinoides (now called V. nudum var. cassinoides) has beautiful fruit, currently mine has clusters of pink and blue berries - the effect is as pretty as the blooms.

Regarding your Winterberries ...

If you saw bloom that looked female to you ... it may be possible (believe it or not) that you don't have any males.

It's not at all unlikely that you got all females ... because females are the bulk of the Winterberry commerce.

If you had male bloom and female bloom ... you should have gotten berries.

Do yourself a favor and get yourself one male Winterberry ... likely you need Southern Gentleman, so that you can fully enjoy (with berries) these wonderful plants.

You won't need a big one. A little feller can take care of all your girls.

Moonshine Design Nurseries has Southern Gentleman available at the website at the link ...

Here is a link that might be useful: Moonshine Design Nurseries

Thanks for the link - Moonshine Design has some hard to find shrubs!

I'll consider ensuring pollinators for the viburnums/winterberries by planting a couple of the appropriate ones - this is a good time of year to find bargains.

10 years ago I planted four winterberry bushes in a not so sunny location. On their 6th year, about 7 feet tall, I successfully moved them to a much sunnier location. Never a berry in all those years.

Then two years later,when they were 8yrs old , I had the FIRST EVER showing of beautiful red berries.

But the next winter NO BERRIES. Same for this coming Winter , as I see no sign of them anywhere.

Any ideas on what caused this one-time-only fruiting in 10 years and how to change that?

Thanks.

Mauro (in Amagansett NY)

Tosco,

I've never tried to grow Winterberries in shade, so let's assume that shade was the problem for the first (7) years.

Obviously, conditions were good for the 8th year (they berried).

Now I had drought affect my Winterberry output last year. Some cultivars berried ... others did not. However, all but one (a different one from last year) are berrying this year.

I'd suggest that you may be missing a male pollinator. It's possible that your female plants were being polinated by a male plant in the area that you didn't know about. It's possible that that (male) plant has been removed, etc.

Another, possibly more likely, scenario ... is that the male(s) that is available for pollinating your plants ... does not, typically, bloom at the same time as your females, ... thus making pollination impossible.

The one year that you did get berries may have been more of a abnormal occurrence ... as something caused your male and female plants to overlap in their blooming periods.

What I would do is to get and plant both an early male (ex. Jim Dandy)... and a late male (ex. Southern Gentleman) ... so that you will have all of your bases covered.

Have any of you ordered from Moonshine Designs? I just purchased 3 Very Berry Winterberries from them via Ebay. I'd already ordered a Red Sprite and Jim Dandy from Pernell Gerver, so Jim Dandy should take care of all four "girls". Hope so! I do want to mention that I've learned that Winterberry, even though apparently are eaten by birds, are toxic to pets. I'll be VERY careful where they are planted, as we have six precious pooches here!