HOLLY

[mad-4-moggywhite-1]

Hello there!

Can anyone with a holly bush in their garden please tell me if it is covered in berries this year or if it is bare, in other words has it been a good or a bad year for pollination of the holly bush?

I will reveal why I am asking when I tell my funny story but I really need to know the answer to the above question first.

Many thanks

Maddie.

[panky]

Very poor this year, hardly a berry in sight

[mad-4-moggywhite-1]

Hmmmm ok thanks Panky. What time of year do you see the first sign of the berries starting to appear?

[panky]

They usually turn red around September, but the birds have had what was there.

[mad-4-moggywhite-1]

Ok thanks Panky.

Last week I ordered two Standard Holly bushes with pots from a company advertising on Amazon. The image of them is rather lovely, and shows two round and bushy standards covered in red berries and advertised as 1 metre tall and flanking the door of a rather grand looking house.

What I received was two scrawny miss-shapen standards that are a foot smaller than stated and just look so pathetic and insignificant standing each side of my front door that it was embarrassing. The one saving grace was that at least they had some bright red berries on them although even then only a handful on each, or so I thought.....!
I then read the leaflet enclosed only to be told that due to the bushes being 'berry less' as it has been a poor year for pollination that artificial berries had been attached to the leaves! Ha ha! I could not believe what I was reading and I hadn't actually noticed the berries were false as it was dark when I received them and unpacked them. In daylight you can clearly see the silver wires attaching the false berries to the bush! I am speechless and that doesn't happen often Furthermore by way of an apology they enclosed a voucher for a measly £5 off your next order! as if I would ever be ordering from them again!! My husband and I could do nothing but laugh at these plastic berries all over the bush, we were re-assured that we would eventually have real berries in the years to come oh how kind of them!! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!

[panky]

At least the birds wont have them, but you'll have to paint them every autumn

[mad-4-moggywhite-1]

Ha ha! Oh my! you couldn't make it up could you!!

[XWL61]

Hollies are dioecious - which in english means that there are male and female plants - the female plants producing berries if they are pollinated with pollen from a male plant.

And before you ask, lots of berries on holly does not mean we are in for a hard winter - it means that conditions during the previous spring when the plants were flowering were good for pollination

Andy

[mad-4-moggywhite-1]

Oh well the upside is that at least I have learned a lot more about holly than I previously knew. Thanks Andy

Every cloud has a silver lining.

[panky]

But they don't have red berries

[SteveClem]

We had two at our last house 'silver King' was female,and had berries. 'Silver queen ' was male and didn't! Even hollies,or their breeders, get confused.

[XWL61]

We had two at our last house 'silver King' was female,and had berries. 'Silver queen ' was male and didn't! Even hollies,or their breeders, get confused.

Don't want to seem like a holly pedant, but Silver King is a synonym of Silver Queen, which is male.

[Plin]

Well I never - fake holly berries!! Good job you have a sense of humour about it! Hopefully in a couple of years you will have some real specimens on your as yet scrawny plants! (And let's hope after all this fuss they are actually holly producing trees!).

[panky]

We get holly bushes springing up all over the place once the birds have 'deposited' the seeds

[SteveClem]

We had two at our last house 'silver King' was female,and had berries. 'Silver queen ' was male and didn't! Even hollies,or their breeders, get confused.

Don't want to seem like a holly pedant, but Silver King is a synonym of Silver Queen, which is male.

I must have been misinformed. Anyway,they looked identical apart from one having berries every year and the other having none at all. More to this holly stuff that meets the eye.

[irmscher]

Steve don't you mean Ilex silver queen is male and golden king is female

[SteveClem]

Now that sounds likely! It was some time ago and my memory is a bit unreliable these days.
Better than a gardening forum this!

[irmscher]

The reason Holly is associated with Christmas is because the spikey leaves represent the crown of thorns Jesus wore and the red berries his blood .Just another bit of useless information I learned years ago

[mad-4-moggywhite-1]

Yes irmscher I think that the Holly was used as a representation of this.

Anyway here is the outcome of me throwing all of my toys out of the pram regarding the poor standard of the Holly bushes I received.

The company sent me a letter of apology and enclosed a cheque for the full amount. I have thanked them and I have told them that I am going to donate it to the charity ' Crisis at Christmas' the money will pay for one person to have a hot meal and some company at what can be very lonely time for many unfortunate people. I think this is a fitting outcome.