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Cross pollination of native fruiting shrubs

14 years ago

I'm trying to create a more bird-friendly environment in my yard. I'd like to plant serviceberry and/or viburnum. I have light shade under some tall locusts and a tuliptree. The space is not huge--do these species need several plants each in order to flower? I was leaning toward viburnum nudum or trilobum and amelanchier grandiflora, but I'm flexible.

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SteveMontain

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

Kaliaman and others,

The spelling is monoecious and dioecious. Also, the relationship is opposite, monoecious(one house) plants have both male and female in the one plant. Despite having both sexes on one plant, it still may not pollinate itself. Blooms need to overlap and pollen must be delivered, do you see? Even if it self pollinates, cross pollination is the better bet as it often produces heavier fruit set.

I won't speak to the plants mentioned but this gives an idea about the possible barriers. A couple loose rules; first, sexual reproduction with a different plant is usually what the plant is looking for, and second, nature doesn't like rules, so expect exceptions to whatever rules you think there are.

It's too bad the industry doesn't just tell it how it is. It's all in an effort to simplify what cannot be simplified to have gardening appear more approachable and easy. Which speaks to a larger problem but I'll resist going into that.

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Comments (8)

lisanti07028
14 years ago
My serviceberry bears fruit all by itself; I don't think that there is another one nearby. I've got a viburnum trilobum that gets berries, and I don't have another one, but there are a lot of different viburnums within several blocks, so it could be that something else is near enough for pollination.

ps-you will be amazed at the serviceberry; this spring I had 20 cedar waxwings in the tree at one time; the only time of the whole year that I see them is when the serviceberries are ripe.
Iris GW
14 years ago
Cross pollination is never an issue for flowering but many fruiting plants set more fruit thanks to cross pollination.

It is not documented as an concern for Serviceberry as much as it is for viburnum. The key is to have them flowering at the same time. For viburnums, I get a good fruit set between two adjacent ones - mapleleaf viburnum and arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum) because they flower together. I think almost any combination is good if they are flowering at the same time (that is the tricky part).

The good thing about Viburnum nudum is there are so many cultivars available that you can find them in the nursery trade. And you can pick up a species one at a native plant sale. Just don't get two of the same cultivar (e.g., two 'Winterthur') since they are genetically identical and would not help with cross pollination as a result.
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Yes, there it is on Landscape Design. Steve, I hope you got the answer you needed after posting it in all those places :) Good luck, viburnum is certainly a wonderful group of shrubs. That is a great old classic thread that Brent linked there and worth linking again here for folks that don't go over there. Here is a link that might be useful: Original viburnum dentatum and friends thread
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Your biggest challenge is to have overlapping bloom times - if you don't have that then they can't help each other. There are several threads that discuss bloom times for various viburnums ("Viburnum dentatum & friends" is one), you might want to look at those. Here is another one specifically about V. dentatum and cultivars. The other issue you could have is compatibility. While I do believe that many of the native viburnums are compatible for cross pollination (V. dentatum and V. nudum are the two native ones you mention), it is possible that they are not compatible with your non-native ones (the other four that you mention) even if you do have overlapping bloom times. Hope that helps. Here is a link that might be useful: V. dentatum & friends
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I like spuddiesel's idea of planting three Elliot's for the landscaping value; I have a hedgerow of eleven northerns with two Elliott's, two Bluecrop, two Reka, Duke, Blueray, Earliblue, Ozark and Spartan - my Elliot's really stand out as the most attractive of the bunch with their almost golden-green foliage. That said, as others have commented, a second cultivar is needed for good cross-pollenation. I'd recommend a middle ripening cultivar with high landscape value such as Toro or Bluecrop; if you have room, add a Reka for an early ripening variety - mine are still rather small, but by reputation they are have outstanding. landscape value. Chandler would closely match the size/shape and landscape value of an Elliot, which can be one of the bigger cultivars and would be a good pollenation partner - the drawback would be in having a lot of late-ripening varieties. In a garden setting, the rule of thumb is one wants a mix of early, middle and late varieties to maximize the number of weeks you'll have fresh berries.
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The first part of your last group of questions seems fairly hypothetical. If the reason that the plant was not self-fertile was due to non-overlapping male and female stages, and, this period could be adjusted enough by different conditions to brink these stages to overlap in different individuals, and, these individuals were brought together at the appropriate time, then sure, it would work. That's a lot of ifs and would be an unusual circumstance. As to the second question, yes; a hedge made from non-self-fertile clones would be infertile. One appropriate pollen donor could really stir things up.
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fatamorgana2121
14 years ago
Raintree Nursery, which sells serviceberries to people wanting to grow fruit, lists them as self-fertile.

I know V. trilobum is self-fertile from personal experience but it is also listed as self-fertile at Raintree.

FataMorgana
kaliaman
14 years ago
monoicious plants have male and female flowers on different plants (ie, there are male plants and female plants)...both are required for fertilization and fruit set. dioicious plants have both sex flowers on the same plant so it can fertilize itself. if you look a plant species up on the net (wiki or elsewhere) you can find this info and know if you need more than one or not to get fruit. your local nursery person should be able to tell you as well.
Iris GW
14 years ago
But cross pollination has nothing to do with being male and female.
Iris GW
14 years ago
I should say "when it comes to viburnums". Obviously when it comes to male/female plants (like hollies), it is very important.
fatamorgana2121
14 years ago
All the fruit nursery places use the phrase "self-fertile" to indicate that a plant can set and produce fruit without others of its kind around for cross-pollination.

As I said above, both V. trilobum and serviceberries are noted as being "self-fertile" at one of my favorite nurseries specializing in fruit and other edible plants.

FataMorgana

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