If I remember correctly my first 2 vines are about 10 yrs old. The largest vine at the base is probably 3" wide. Last year I discovered that vine had itsy bitsy flowers, sorta pale green, but never any berries, so I assume the flower never got fertilized. I ordered all the vines from a catalogue and am beginning to wonder if I don't have the oriental variety. :( At the time I ordered I didnt realize there was a difference. This year I am researching a self polinating variety - but photos of the berries look larger and not quite as pretty as the ones I remember growing up with.

I'm not sure but those could be the male flowers, possibly, or female flowers with no male? They should have flowered by now, unless you had a late frost that may have damaged them. I saw the 'new' variety that Jung Seed sells, not sure what they look like when opened up. I wonder if they would pollinate your flowers too? Try to reason with your bitter sweet and maybe they'll turn out to be more sweet than bitter for you. :D

HaHa - I tried to reason with the vines for YEARS now - but they seem to be similar to toddlers, there is no reasoning with them :) One of my concerns with the 'new' variety is the berries may not be as vibrant as the 'old timers'. And as I age I grow more leery of 'new', 'scientific', "improvements" to mother natures' plants :( Ah well - we will see. Thank You for your comments, I appreciate the feedback.

No problem! Ha, that reminded me, I read this book called "The Secret Life of Plants", I forget the authors, but it's one of the most amazing books I have ever read, and I read a LOT. Anyway, they mention that our plants know what we think and feel, and if you are nice to them they are *supposed* to appreciate it. Anyway, they also wrote that plants are want to grow to please us. Sometimes being Ms Nice guy doesn't work, so you have to resort to stronger measures. I was super nice to my one key lime plant who always flowers too early in the season, and never produces viable flowers. SO, this year I talked to it and said that I wish it would be able to make fruit and to not flower until I could put it outside in the sun. Know what? It made viable flowers where I was talking to it! I have another plant, an Amazon Lily that I've had for years and no flowers. None. So, I finally had it. I got really angry and told Miz Lily that if she doesn't start making some flowers pronto that I am either going to give her away or throw her off the back of the deck (like I did to my banana tree- who incidentally is skating on thin ice as it's never produced bananas!). So, guess what?? It produced one single flower stalk before December. I was amazed. I still wasn't totally happy because it didn't have a scent, but I figured I would give it a break. Maybe you should get out a sharp bladed shovel and stand menacingly over the vines...ready to dig...if it doesn't do anything this year, it's outta here. Then see what happens! ; )

Bittersweet took over all my other producing vines so after 4 years am still digging them up and burning them..