We have a female. Appreciating its dioecius. My question is, can it be pollinated by evergreen holly we have nearby, (several) ? Or do we explicitly need another winterberry?
My understanding is that British evergreen Ilex ..holly will not be right to pollinate the deciduous Ilex verticillata. You need to find your female a male partner.
We used to grow female and male Ilex verticillata... but the long lasting berries that were promised got eaten immediately by the birds.....bitterly disappointing.
@Silver surfer thanks for that. Ours is in a garden we're steering toward being a winter garden with midwinter fire/siberica Cornus (en masse), some other Hollys and the star we're hoping will be the paperbark cherry prunus serrula which seems to have finally taken off
I hope you will also make it an autumn garden with serious colour. Euonymus, Acers, Parrotia, Fothergilla, Dawn Redwood, Aronia, Hamamellis, Malus for fruits, Sorbus for fruits, etc etc etc.
@Silver surfer appreciate the thought, but we have quite a few garden areas and beds, so have lots of autumnal stuff going on! We did buy a Hamamellis Jelena to go into winter bed but i have decided there isn't enough room for it in the same bed, not with the Cherry and a potentially very large Callicarpa.
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You need to find your female a male partner.
We used to grow female and male Ilex verticillata... but the long lasting berries that were promised got eaten immediately by the birds.....bitterly disappointing.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/105265/Ilex-verticillata/Details
Euonymus, Acers, Parrotia, Fothergilla, Dawn Redwood, Aronia, Hamamellis, Malus for fruits, Sorbus for fruits, etc etc etc.
like the Aronia, will keep an eye out for one.