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Why does my holly not produce berries?

Margaret asks:

It will be Christmas soon and I love decorating my house with holly, but my holly never seems to produce any berries, am I doing something wrong?

As Christmas approaches and people plan for the event, this is a question which comes up around this time every year. Fear not—we have the answer.

It’s all to do with sex. The sex of the holly, that is. You usually need a male plant and a female plant. Unless the plant is a self-fertile female or a hermaphrodite. It’s a bit complex, especially when male plants have names like “Silver Queen” and a reliable female holly plant is the variety “Golden King”. Confused?

For a full explanation you can click through to one of our other websites, where our gardening expert has written a simple but detailed explanation:

Holly comes out at Christmas

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