Don't tell me I need a pollinator!!!

12 years ago

i have a magnificent planting--about 12 feet in diameter--of Arctostaphyllos uva-ursi (cultivar either 'Vancouver jade' or 'Massachusetts'). It bloomed for the first time this year and was it ever lovely. I looked forward to berries. But no berries. I hope I don't need a pollinator since I don't have room for another clone.

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Comments (3)

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
12 years ago
Not to worry...Bearberry flowers have all of the essential 'pieces and parts' within the same flower. The correct term for the other plant required for pollination needs, by the way, is pollenizer. Pollinators are the agents that assist in pollination. Your plant does not need pollenizers but won't make berries without plenty of pollinators. ;-)

Bees and other such insects (and even hummingbirds) are the pollinators for these plants. Do you have plenty of buzzy activity during flowering time?
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
about 12 feet in diameter .... It bloomed for the first time this year

===>>> devils advocate here ...

why is it so big??? ... and yet just now achieving sexual maturity???? [keep in mind i am not knowledgeable with this plant] ?????

how long planted??
amended hole???
how much fertilizer????

total stab in the dark ... a hyper-fertilized plant .. especially with the wrong formula [like its in the middle of a heavily fertilized lawn??] ... can grow vegetatively in excess .. at the cost of flowers ...

sooooo ... it simply a teenager.. who failed at its first go round with reproduction [and its parents are breathing a sigh of relief] .. and it will do better next time [if you ever let it go out on a date again] .. lol ...

or the fert thingee ....

or .... fertilization happened at a time of drought or any other weather related occurrence that interfered with the bugs .... the 'tors .... hurricane... 60 inches of rain????

who knows ... just something about that 12 feet tall and first flowering is bothering me ....

well.. as they say.. there is always next year ...

ken

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laceyvail 6A, WV
Original Author
12 years ago
Ken, remember this is a groundcover, very flat. It had some trouble its first couple of years (dug up by an enthusiastic dog for one thing)but the last couple of years has grown by leaps and bounds. No fertilizer in my poor, sandy, acidic soil except some rock phosphate.

I do have many pollinators, to use the term correctly now, and usually see the first ones with the early crocus.

So perhaps I'll have berries next year.