I think they do best when they can be cross-pollinated with another. Perhaps there are no longer any companions nearby.

Okay, I'll see if I can find another one. The one I have is a clump, and I suspect it's the local native one that birds brought in years ago.

Thanks

ID it in the name that plant forum..

and then go search for mates ...

ken

The grow so prolifically around here that I can't be a source for whether a mate will do it good or not.

From watching the clumps here, there could be several things going on. Sometimes the fruit produced are few because of poor pollination. I have noticed that in the shade, they probably seem to have a 10% set. Then the berries produce are tiny and are eaten quickly, so it may be fruiting sparsely and you missed them.

If you are not watching them, they set, ripen and are eaten within a couple of weeks. The ones in the sun generally get big and weigh the bush down, and they seem to last longer. If you have never noticed, them and Viburnum trilobum have the wide white panicle of flowers that absolutely glow in the full moon. Quite different from their daytime appearance.

I think only Germany has a commercial Elderberry industry. I know you can buy drums of Elder extract for outlandish sums of money, and every couple of years they have a crop failure.I know one lady who almost lost her job from the vagarities of the market. She wanted an Applesauce colored red from a natural source, and developed a recipe using Elderberry extract. The problem was, when they ordered the drums, the price had gone up 10-fold. Then there's the time she put the decimal point at the wrong place in the specs and they used up all the strawberry concentrate long before it should have run out....

Ken, I already know it's an elderberry, there are a lot of them growing wild here and I've had them before. And I don't think I've ever seen them for sale in a nursery here.

Dzit, I've kept an eye on them before, and there's no fruit set.