a hundred years. Its roots seem to harm the lawn 
or adjoining plantings less than those of most 
hedges. Try a Holly hedge, you will like it. 
15. At What Age Does Holly 
Begin to Bear? 
This is hard to answer because a Holly tree in 
good ground often grows much faster and bears 
berries in one-half the time of one in poor ground. 
U. S. Bulletin No, 1693, “Growing Christmas 
Holly on the Farm,” says: “Plants may first bear 
flowers at an age between five and twelve years.” 
I find that the average Holly is about ten years 
old before it bears many berries, and that the 
heavy bearing ten-foot tree is about fifteen years 
old. 
16. My Holly Tree Blooms 
Every Year. Why Does It 
Not Bear Berries? 
You probably have a male tree. Both male and 
female trees bloom, the male often the heaviest. 
One can tell the sex at blooming time. The female 
or berry tree has the solitary blossoms on single 
stems, while the male or non-berry tree always has 
the solitary blossom on single stems in multiple, 
like cherries, two, three or four in a cluster. 
If your tree is a female tree, but does not pro- 
duce berries, then there 1s a lack of the fertilizing 
pollen and a male tree should be planted. 
17. Why AmI Advised to Buy 
Transplanted Holly? 
Holly from the wild is hard to make live be- 
cause of its poor root system. Most people are 
surprised to learn that Holly trees in their native 
woods often have root systems that reach out al- 
most twice as far as the height of the tree. Such 
trees when moved have a large part of their root 
system cut off. Illustration No. 5. 
Nursery grown, transplanted Hollies have a 
mass of fine, short roots and are much easier to 
make live. In fact, our nursery grown, three or 
four times transplanted Hollies are proving much 
safer to move than many of our so-called com- 
mon evergreens. Illustration No. 6. 
When you buy Holly it will pay you to be sure 
that it has been nursery grown and several times 
transplanted. 
