Holly

I live in southwest PA and I have about 30 holly trees growing wild and none of them have berries. The largest is about 20 feet tall. I have not planted any of them. I was wondering if this was normal and do I need one of the opposite sex to generate berries? I just took a walk and have another growing. They are growing everywhere - in the landscaping and on the edge of the woods.

Thank you,
Ken

As far as I know, you will need a female tree and a male tree to produce berries.

It is possible that you missed the berries (depending on type) as birds can strip the tree clean when the berries ripen (Cedar Waxwings love holly berries for example). My parents have two very tall holly trees that get stripped of berries in late April - early May for example. One of the big holly trees (late April over 10 years ago and a pair of Cedar Waxwings - elusive critters)



https://extension.psu.edu/why-doesnt-my-holly-have-berries

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/holly/holly-bush-no-berries.htm

Ken63 should post images of his trees. I'd suspect that hcmcdole's perspective is correct.

Native/seedling trees are usually a good mix of male and female-flowered trees. The way to tell is to photograph the flowers (close up, as they are small) when in bloom. The male/staminate flower is very easy to tell apart from the female/pistillate flower.

The amount of light that any one plant gets will affect level of flowering. The shadier it is, the less flowers you will likely have. I suspect the ones in your landscaping are still young. They take a few years to reach flowering size from seed. The only other plausible explanation for no fruit ever is if you regularly got last freezes/frosts that killed the flowers before they were pollinated. I wouldn't think that would be the case EVERY year.

And the fact that you have seedlings means that there are hollies successfully producing fruit somewhere nearby.

Fortunately, American Holly (Ilex opaca) are very easy to transplant. If you have excess seedlings in your formal landscape, those would be good candidates to pop out and replant where appropriate - or to share with others if you don't need them.

These are the pictures to go with my post. I used a broom as a reference to the size.

Those all look like handsome plants with pretty clean foliage. That first one seems to have the richest dark green leaves.

Of course, American Holly blooms in the spring. That's when you'll need to observe the flowering of your plants, to see which ones are male plants and which are female plants.

One other recommendation: some gardeners use a lot of pesticides for various reasons. Many insecticides are highly harmful to bees, which are the primary pollinating insects on many species of hollies. Don't use insecticides on plants which have pollinating insects visiting, or you will likely never have very good pollination in your landscape.

The Pride Nursery of Butler PA is not terribly far from your neck of the woods. Orlando Pride was well known among holly enthusiasts for testing and selecting for winter hardiness among American Holly plants. Many of his selections are still prized plants today among gardeners in colder climates.

You might also be interested in this group: http://www.hollysocam.org/