christie_sw_mo - I had a single American holly and it berried fine, but I am not sure why. Could have been a wild male in the woods as I was not in/near a neighborhood. There were some male Clarissa hollies on the property but those should not logically pollinate it. I am crazy about hollies for birds, but it sounds like they are just one of those bad luck plants for you. I've never seen a bird eat a nandina berry. Been some discussions on the subject here, and I have not heard of anyone that has had birds eat the berries either. No clue why that plant has a rep for bird berries. There were some on this property - okay a thousand of them on this property - but I pulled them up to replace them with other known successful plants. Nandina is a major problem in south Georgia forests so I decided to forgo them completely, make room for serviceberry. One thing that has become very clear to me with the moving from established garden to re-building is to plant hedgerows, hedgerows and more hedgerows. It's a major difference in the bird populations to have thickets and safe places. Birds have been nesting here, but only cavity nesters, and the second the babies fledge the parents take them off property to cover. Very few warblers around and no ground nesters except visitors. I have always heard that the vibunum dentatum berries get eaten quickly - will have to find out how that goes. The viburnum trilobum I have is the cuttings you sent so of course they won't berry, but the dentatum should if pollinated. The Aronia arbutifolia is one I want to watch as well - I have cuttings and purchased a potted plant, but it's just getting leaves. Very late to leaf out - is this normal? By the way, goumi (Eleagnus multiflora) was always a great bird food source. Grew it for ten years, nevera single seedling. It does not germinate easily and cuttings are difficult, so apparently not invasive. I've heard of others rooting cuttings so maybe it's my area, but it's a non-native I will grow. The cuttings are doing beautifully so far. I baby them and hope I can get them to make it. It's an outstanding collection for my personal hedgerow (thank you thank you thank you) in the making. Maybe I'll get to a point where I can grow enough to share. Been working on a system for potting and moving after they root. I've had people stop by and ask for advice on their own yards and I'd looove to be able to supply some of these plants you can't find in local nurseries. These are regular people, not gardeners, who just want some landscaping and birds and they aren't going to be ordering online like we are. I have a lot to learn, particularly about native plant ID, but can share what I do know. Some neighborhood kids knocked on my door and asked to "see the baby birds" as I had mentioned to one of their Mothers that I had birds in my boxes - and the kids were impressed with "how many animals I had in my yard". Apparently they told their parents. For me it was totally out of the blue and I was delighted. I did not relize there was a native plant exchange here - I need to head over and beg cuttings. :D dragonfly_wings - I had two mulberry trees before and they were my waxwing magnets. Hundreds of waxwings descended during migration, what a beautiful sight. Great plant and I want another, but one tree seeded all to heck and back. The other was an old tree, totally different leaf and I believe native. It was there long before I was. Both were red mulberry and distinctly different as mulberry tends to be. I had no problems with seeding on the second but can't figure out what exactly the genus of tree it is that I didn't have problems with. I loved it and really want another but it's gone on the back burner due to the fact that I am not positive which to get. If I see one on the side of the road similar to the one I like, I'll be hopping out of the car and knocking on doors and making a nuisance of myself. And I am shy!!!!!! But for that plant, I'll do it.

I agree that Kevin has the most perfect approach. However in my case I can see myself getting arrested if I even tried to cut down or back any invasives on public property. The Nature Preserve that I was talking about has a big sign prohibiting digging, cutting, or otherwise tampering with any plants on the preserve. Even if they didn't the amount of Porcelian Berry is staggering. While the Preserve is mostly deep woods with nice wide hiking trails there is one section were it opens up into a large sunny clearing. I mean about a half acre. And what do you think is 90% of that clearing? Yes, its all Porcelian Berry. That was all here before I moved into my house and the Porcelian Berry has always sprouted in any disturbed ground around the yard and the neighborhood. So I have no guilt over planting my less vigorious Varigated Porcelian Berry in my yard. As far as cutting down the Japanese Honeysuckle that grows around some of the shrubs in the park, anyone trying to cut them would have the police called on them for defacing public property. I have never seen berries on them, just flowers but who knows. I didn't even know what to do with my mistakenly bought invasive Adult English Ivey until I found a nice grove of it climing trees in the very same park accross the street. It seems to be in that area, on those trees but not elsewhere. So I planted my little shrub.

I believe it's the red Aronia I have (which I also think the Latin name has been changed). I bought it because I read that they eat the red one and not the black. Mine has yet to bloom, just bought this spring at a native sale with not much to it, so I can't comment on the fragrance. But I went to another native sale that had the black ones and they smelled heavenly. And of course I went on a day that was for pick-up only. Since it was about a 2 hour drive, no way was I going back the next to buy myself one! I guess I should of worded my initial post differently and added in what berries do you find that your birds don't eat, but you have knowledge that they eat them somewhere else or something to that effect...because as Rita pointed out, there are berries that maybe the birds in my back yard won't eat, but they eat them in somebody else's.

Could be 'Nellie Stevens' holly. Hard to tell without a closeup of leaves. But these can be prolific berry producers. And yes, most people want lots of berries! Usually robins strip my hollies of berries in the winter when worms are a scace comodity, but for some reason those of Nellie Stevens aren't quite as much to their liking. If robins can find worms (soil not frozen), they'll usually avoid the hollies. I don't think you can do anything except remove the trees if this really is bothersome. There's a holly called 'Eagleson' (or Eagleston) of comparable size that is gorgeous and makes a lot fewer berries. One other thing you could try is to trim back the hollies just after they are finished blooming. This way, you remove a lot of the spent flowers and developing fruit. We don't normally advocate that, as most people want the berries! I do not know whether these berries will readily sprout and become a 'weed' problem. Some hybrids (if that's what you have) are sterile. My hollies rarely sprout around the yard except for Castle Spire. I do get a lot of native I. opaca sprouting though.