I tried to choose a good native smallish evergreen with berries for birds- settled on Ilex glabra. I got 4 Shamrock, followed by one Gem Box. This is their 3rd/2nd summer and I find exactly ONE berry (green right now.). So nothing nearby (huge Burford next to them, many opaca in the general area, an unknown male holly in my yard that has a zillion blooms and bees love..) is doing the deed. I examined this spring and confirmed that my glabra all had lots of female flowers. They're 3 feet tall and wide, very green, happy. (Gem Box smaller)
Now I'm hunting for a Nordic, sounds like the one male you can buy( or is it?). One place has them back in stock but a hefty 3 gallon plant and I was hoping to start smaller.
Here's what bugs me: NONE of the many female I. glabra at this big nursery had any berries. Wouldn't you expect that some Nordics and some females all sat together in a field for a good part of their lives? Is that a reasonable assumption, that the females ought to have some berries at the nursery?
If I find a Nordic and a place to plant it in my 1/2 acre, should it do the trick for berries?
Does anybody have Ilex glabra making lots of berries?
(This may sound a bit grumpy- the sales person was not on my wavelength. "The berries are very small and black.. " I know what a berry looks like
I know, it's probably rare to have an educated consumer and a very specific demand like this.
)
Probably somone's ears are burning but just in case -
@ViburnumValley
