What the nurseries don't tell you is that most (not all) Viburnums need cross polinators to give the most berries. Some V.'s seem to berry themselves without help, but I personally can't get enough V.'s in my yard so I can't use that as excuse too often. I will tell you that mine did not produce berries the first two years I had them.

The link below (GardenWeb Shrubs Forum) has a comprehensive discussion about Viburnums. It enlightened me! One of the first things is to get the whole scientific name, since V.'s are quite varied and it can get confusing if you just use the common name or the variety name. You have two V. dilatatums (the Linden V.) and one V. dentatum (the Arrowwood V.), your Blue Muffin.
Many V.'s bloom at different times and therefore won't have the pollen available when needed, so the trick is to buy the shrubs that have the same blooming time. I found some V. acerifolium (the Maple-leaf V.) growing wild in my woods and transplanted a couple near my V. dilatatum's, and a V. carlesii. All are showing the promise of lovely berries this year for the first time and it may be that the wild V. had a long bloom period at the same time the other V.'s needed the pollen. Or, it could just be that the V.'s I have are finally established enough to make berries.

If you have two V. dilatatum Michael Dodge's grown from seedlings they will have a different genetic makeup and can cross pollinate whereas two grown vegatatively (from cuttings) from the same mother plant will be clones and therefore identical. You'd have better luck buying one each from two different nurseries who would share the name of the wholesalers to ensure they are not from the same mother plant.

Your V. dentatum Blue Muffin does not need to be paired to make berries.

I would recommend that you buy another V. dilatatum and plant it somewhere between the Michaeil Dodge and Cardinal Candy. Erie or Oneida would have different colored berries than yours - just to make things interesting. or, you could get another one of either of the V. dilatatum's you already have. Check out the Exchanges page or do a search to find someone to trade with. The V.'s are quite easy to propagate and grow amazingly fast.

Nancy the nancedar

Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb Shrubs Forum on Viburnum

I saw some beautiful Virburnums in NJ last year, and so decided to try some here in NC. got a good starter kit from Bluestone, which I planted in the front of the house this year. I am delighted to say that I don't think they have been bothered by the deer (our biggest problem out front), so perhaps we have found something to fill our enormous plant bed instead of weeds....

also trialing some ground covers we got at PlantsDelight.

Michael

I have three Viburnum dilatatum 'Asian Beauty' that are planted with about 6 feet of spacing between them. They were planted in September '04 and bloomed profusely this year and have set berries.