how to get Holly to bear red berries?

My lovely 95 year old neighbor would like to know how she can get her holly bushes to bear fruit. Apparently they are not the right sex. Is it possible to graft on something to make it happen? Does she need to plant another bush of the opposite sex? I'm clueless (nothing unusual about that).

yes they are male and female. you have to have female bushes and a male pollen plant within so many feet or yards. i forget what the ratio is. one male per so many females.
if they had berries on them when she bought them then they are female, if not probably male.

Can your neighbour remember the name of the holly shrub she planted, or is it too old for that, the names of the male and female hollies are very confusing, as here in UK, we have ones called ILEX Golden King, so laugh if you may, but this king is in fact a queen and female, Silver queen is is also male (could only happen in the plant world to confuse us all even more) so I would suggest your neighbour plants one of each, male and female as then she will be sure to get berries, the older plant will either be pollinated, or it will pollinate the new ones, then a few years later, she will soon know what the old Holly is, if it berries it is female, if not, it is male and she can add more females to the garden should she want lots of red berried foliage for winter, the birds love the berries and keep the birds alive during winter, some really nice different coloured foliage ones are on the market right now also, but she needs to read up on what sex they are, some have lovely yellow edges around the leaf, others have silver, all are really wonderful and can be cut into ball shapes etc, hollies dont always have really large amounts of berries, it all depends on the summer season as far as water is concerned and ofcource winter, over here in UK, we always know if we are going to have a really bad winter if we have lots of holly berries, old mans talk was that nature provides extra berries to save the wild life, have to say, this has always proved true in my garden where we have loads of holly growing. good luck. hope you have many berries close by in a few years time. WeeNel.

thanks WeeNel and Len for your good input.
Jane's latest inquiry is whether the female Holly could be grafted onto her tree, or not.
(She doesn't have a lot of space)

WeeNel, I'm wondering where in the UK you are living? I was in school in Hampshire for three years and I well remember walking through a village called 'Hollywood', which struck me as funny, coming from California. Lot's of Holly there, of course; it was lovely.

cheers!

This message was edited Dec 18, 2007 1:54 PM

that's out of my league!lol! the grafting. but i think she first has to determine if she has males or females. the females will not produce berries if there isn't a male, so they may be mistaken for males.

Someone else will probably have a real answer for you on the grafting, but my thought is if it worked well to graft male and female hollies together like that, someone would have done it already and would be selling plants like that. I've never seen anything like that (although to be fair I've never shopped for hollies, so there might be one and I just haven't seen it).

so true ecrane, but then wouldn't that cause people to complain to the nurseries that only half the branches on their hollies have berries? lol!

or maybe they could market holly polly holly pollen. pollen in a jar that you could just brush on with a paintbrush.
entrancemount why don't you just make her a cranberry garland to wrap on her holly and it would still be a treat for the birds. that would be the easiest. that's what i would do.
http://www.oceanspray.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?id=2351&nid=1


notice the note at the bottom of the recipe! lol!

I'm taking all this to heart, you two!

good point, ecrane, about the male/female grafting, of course!

she's got a gingko tree too; it's never produced nuts; same problem . ..

I'll keep that part about the shellac in mind..... lol!

She should be glad about the ginkgo...the female ones make nasty smelly fruits, definitely not something I would want in my yard!

entrancemount, i just think the lady is lonely and wants company. At 95 I can't imagine myself worrying about how i can get a holly to produce berries, or a ginko to produce nuts.lol! Keep us posted on the next 'garden wonder' please!

Hi Entrancemount, just wanted to say, that you can graft holly shrubs/trees, but the end results would still be the same, she may have a female tree, but because there are no males in her close proximity, they are unable to produce berries due to pollination, I would stress that grafting for the inexperienced is very difficult and a bit hit and miss as you need to do it at the right time of season, you need to have the right size of material for grafting and you have to be patient perhaps for about 3/4 years to make sure the graft has taken, by which time, a small whip of a new size tree will be producing flowers and then berries IF you plant both sexes, holly whips are so cheep to buy and get hold of, they grow quickly to whatever size you require for the space you have that I fear that your friend would be so disappointed if she tried to graft, however, on saying that, should she want the challenge, I will be happy to give all the info required, I have to take my hat off to her, she sounds like a real tough lady with the patience of a Saint and as much determination for her great age, hope I have her pluck and fore site IF I ever reach that grand old age, good luck and very best wishes for the next year of 2008. WeeNel.

thank you WeeNel, once again! and we send our good wishes to you too!

slàinte maith!