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No berries on shrubs

8 years ago

Any thoughts on why a number of the shrubs I've planted over the last two years have not produced any berries? These shrubs include 'Shamrock' inkberry, red-twig dogwood, gray dogwood, arrowwood viburnum, blackhaw viburnum, nannyberry, and spicebush. At the same time, I do have berries on my winterberries , hollies, and red and black chokeberries. Might some of these shrubs that aren't producing berries just need more time or might something else be going on here? I live in Pennsylvania. Zone 6b.

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Comments (4)

tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
8 years ago
Did they flower?

tj
Marie Tulin
8 years ago
please give us your climate zone and a geographical reference

which were planted when?

what was your winter like last year?
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Friends have small children! Must know what these berries are because small children make poor decisions! ==>>> fill small snack baggies with goldfish crackers ... tell the kids NEVER to eat anything in the yard... and to bring the baggie back when its empty.. for more ... its much easier to teach the crumb muncher ... as compared to denuding your entire yard .... most likely ... you will never remove everything in the yard that might hurt a child .... heck.. even if they eat enough grass ... they will be trotting around the yard ... but you are right.. these types of berries are what is called in the law .. an attractive nuisance .... they attract attention ... ken
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
excessive green growth over flowering is typical of too much of the wrong fert ...

how did you plant them ...

sexual maturity ... comes when ti comes ... you really cant compare divergent plants when talking about timing ...

it would also be nice to know.. how big yours are ...

finally.. insufficient sun can affect plants ...

ken
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
8 years ago
Some plants need cross-pollination from a genetically different plant of the same or similar species to fruit well. Many of the Viburnums are like that, and if you do a search of Viburnum on this forum, probably several threads will turn up from somewhere around 2005 or 2006 that discuss which Viburnums will pollinate which others.

My red-twigged dogwoods never fruited even though there are wild red-twigged dogwoods nearby. I don't know why.

Inkberries (Ilex glabra) are dioecious (separate male and female plants) like other hollies, so you need both male and female plants to get fruit. A named variety like Shamrock will all be the same, though I don't know if it's male or female. If male, it won't get berries regardless, but if female, it will need a male with a similar blooming time. Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is another dioecious plant, and so will only have fruit if it is a female plant with a male nearby.

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