HOW CLOSE DO THE MALE HOLLIES HAVE TO BE TO THE FEMALE 
HOLLIES? 
If there are lots of Hollies in the neighborhood, you probably need 
to buy only female trees. The bees that visit your female Hollies very 
likely will have visited a neighbor's male tree somewhere along the line. 
If in doubt that the bees will supply pollen from a distance or if 
present berry crops seem light, why not make this test .. . Watch for the 
flowers at blossom time in spring. Select any branch at random and 
count the blossoms on it. Tag it and mark the number of blossoms on the 
tag. At least four out of five blossoms counted should turn to a berry. 
If a disappointing number of berries are obtained, buy a male or move 
a present male closer to your female tree. 
If you are the first one to buy Hollies in your neighborhood, you 
must buy both male and female trees and should plant them within a 
few dozen feet of each other. For the same bees that visit your female 
tree must also visit your male tree else you will not have berries. If 
your male and female trees are planted quite near each other, the bees 
can hardly miss them. Do not plant so close that the Hollies will be 
crowded together when they become larger. Slow growing varieties 
should not be planted closer than six feet apart. Fast growing varieties 
should not be planted closer than twelve feet apart. 
SOME NURSERIES SELL ONLY FEMALE HOLLIES. WHY? 
These nurseries usually claim that male Hollies are unnecessary or 
that Hollies (particularly theirs) are bisexual like most other trees. These 
nurserymen are wrong as botanical literature and common-sense per- 
sonal observation at blossom time will prove. 
How do they get this idea? The usual cause is that these nurseries 
have large male Hollies on their grounds or in the woodlands nearby. 
Large male Hollies flower so profusely that they provide ample pollen 
for hundreds of little female trees in the nursery field rows. 
Each year finds a larger number of puzzled homeowners who have 
purchased female Hollies only. They wonder why they do not have ber- 
ries because their nurseryman did. The obvious answer is that most 
folks do not live near woodlands where Hollies are wild . . . do not live 
near male Hollies ... and must buy a male in order to have berries on 
their females. 
Private individuals and Garden Clubs will do their communities a 
service by seeing that all nurseries that sell female Hollies also sell male 
Hollies. One male Holly will pollenate five or more female Hollies of 
equal size. But as the average national Holly purchase is one male and 
two females, it would seem that every nursery should stock Hollies in 
about that proportion. 
—: More Holly Information on the Back Cover :— 
