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Holly bush with no berries
flowersforbees
Posts: 221
in Talkback
HI All,
I'm hoping someone out there can give me a bit of advice about my holly bush
(which is rapidly turning into a tree!). I planted it about eight years ago and every
year upto this year I've had lots of lovely berries - this year I've counted only three!
It's the varigated type with green and gold leaves (no prickles). Am I right in
thinking it's the male which bears berries? Beside it is the female (I think)
which is very prickly but has the same coloured leaves. I'm at a loss to know
why I don't have berries this year - can anyone help me with this please?
I should say that the problem started in the spring, because there were
hardly any flowers on it, hence no berries.
0
Posts
I never get many, this year only one bush has any and only a few
In the sticks near Peterborough
and Silver Queen a male
l'd love to hear the justification for those two.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Hi Flowersfor bees - as you say the problem stems from the fact that you had few flowers - I wonder if this could be due to the rotten summer we had before (2012) with hardly any sunshine or warmth to ripen the wood which is needed to produce flowers and fruit?
However, I've seen lots of well-berried hollies around this year and if it was down to weather conditions you'd think it would be a more general problem
If you only saw a few flowers it can't be down to the lack of pollinating insects in the cold spring and summer.
I suggest that you make sure there's no grass etc growing around the base of the tree, and then, in February give it a little sprinkling of a high potash fertiliser and make sure it's watered in well. That should remind it to flower in 2014
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
J C van Tol is I think self fertile so does not need another holly nearby to produce berries. I think it was very cold this year at around the time hollies flowered so there are unlikely to be too many berries.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
it needs a partner ,you have to have a male and female bush unless its a self fertilizing one.
We have loads of holly berries this year - very few last year - and a bumper crop the year before. So they do vary quite widely.
Its funny how you never notice the flowers on holly (and I always forget to look)
We don't ever get many on ours.
Don't
know if its an old wives tale, but they say the harsher the winter the more berries