All viburnums benefit from cross pollination. What you have are CULTIVARS - cultivated variations of the species. The key to cross pollination is to have overlapping bloom times. Therefore, a good bet is to use something in the same family. You can use "straight species" plants as cross pollinators or another cultivar. Viburnum nudum 'Winterthur' would do well with a Viburnum nudum or Viburnum cassinoides (sometimes called Viburnum nudum var. cassinoides). Or with your existing Viburnum nudum 'Brandywine'. 'Blue Muffin' happens to be a cultivar of Viburnum dentatum. Only if it blooms at the same time as your 'Winterthur' and 'Brandywine' will you get the cross pollination. You could get a species Viburnum dentatum or Viburnum dentatum 'Red Feather' or 'Morton' (sometimes called Northern Burgundy) or 'Chicago Lustre'. There are others too. Because of overlapping bloom times, I've even had my 'Blue Muffin' cross pollinated by my Viburnum acerifolium.

"It set fruit." Viburnums can do that when planted alone. That you are seeking a pollinator tells me (somewhat surreptitiously) that you expect more from the plant. Did you photograph this previous plant while in fruit? Do you think any neighbors might have had a Doublefile Viburnum that was giving you an assist? 'Summer Snowflake' is a fun plant, behaving much differently than most of the rest of the regularly available Doublefile Viburnum clones. It is a narrow upright habit plant with repeat blooming capability, albeit each flower head is a bit smaller than the standard clones. I haven't seen it set fruit much, and that's probably due to it generally being planted alone or in groups of itself. I don't have it here - which prompts me to start hunting one up. Doublefiles are just so darn unappreciative of the Valley's ghastly dry hot humid summers. It is no wonder I currently have but a handful: 'Shasta', 'Shoshoni', 'Mary Milton', 'Popcorn', 'Newport', 'Lanarth', 'West Olive', and 'Pink Beauty' I've killed a few more, and the 2007 Easter freeze vanquished many others. By the way: did your 'Pink Beauty' actually bloom pink? Mine is always white, and I'm assuming I received a mislabeled drone common species Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum.

Viburnum fruit are quite edible (at least the ones that can be grown in the midwest that I've consumed) though they aren't all very tasty. Birds will most likely clean up all the arrowwood fruit soon after they ripen, so worrying about kids/fruit shouldn't be a problem. Rachel: get a compact V. carlesii in addition to the V. x juddii, and you should have appropriate partners for future fruiting. As far as what people should know: I've been a horticulturist about 20 years, and a landscape architect (including school) for about 10. I can't claim to know everything, but I darn sure try to learn it when it's obvious that I don't and need to. Same with this instance. Learning all the viburnum lore came with first attraction to the possibilities of the genus, and then the need to make all the possibilities happen when the plants were acquired and planted. I had the advantage of many years of acquiring texts on woody plants, so a little reading got me steered in the right direction. Not every plant/design professional is so oriented (unfortunately) and sometimes only is exposed to the knowledge level of those they work with, or the limited amount of information that can be provided during the short time in school. I admire, and look for in those I work with or hire, that thirst for CONTINUING LIFELONG EDUCATION (of which GW is one additional source) which illustrates a passion for higher standards and results. It is promising that the landscaper you admire bothered to source more info for you. It is not promising to suggest that you are overthinking things. I'd be interested in hearing what "tons of viburnums" she plants; what clones of which species; and what happens when she only plants one clone of a species that is rarely represented in Chicagoland. There is the rub. To make the point, you also might ask her if it is overthinking things to only plant Ilex verticillata Winter Red, and no male pollinator, especially if you are in a relatively isolated locale. I bet the various clones of V. dentatum are well represented around Chicago, since several of them were selected there and have been planted for years. Not so with quite a few others though, like V. nudum Winterthur. You may NEVER see fruit on this fine plant without a dissimilar V. nudum around, since it blooms quite a bit after almost every other common viburnum species. So.......you are on the right track, and hopefully have many more viburnum experience opportunities ahead. And, if you've helped a design/landscape professional learn a little something along the way, the world will be a better place for it.

Actually POPCORN is flowering now. It always gets my attention in flowqer because of the huge white flower clusters. Since my other viburnums were all selected for fruit production they look good flowering but not as showey as POPCORN. Shoshoni started flowering heavily as it added afew more years, it just needed to grow up some. Shasta always flowers heavily now and both set fruit for me each year. Shasta is about 7 feet and Shoshoni about 5 feet tall. I don't know about wide because if they get too wide, I just prune back some branches. Over all, I am very glad that I planted all three of them and here they stay.