bare root holly hedge

engineshed · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 7:18 pm Post subject: bare root holly hedge

Hi all, i'm new to this site and am hoping someone can answer a question for me- I am planning to plant a bareroot english holly hedge later this year and would prefer a good proportion of female plants. My supplier cannot tell the gender of such young plants and I am wondering what would the male to female ratio typically be for 300 plants taken at random. thanks

Ado 2 · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 9:04 pm Post subject:

Hey I wonder if you are living rurally cos there usually is holly somewhere around.. If so yes I would say yes cos all you need is a few females

Greengage · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 9:14 pm Post subject:

you cannot plant bare rooted holly and you will not but it anywhere.
How to tell the difference you need to see it in flower males have more prominent stamens than females. I would plant 70 male 30 female only female have berries but you can plant whatever ratio you like so long as you plant male and female. best to buy 2ltr potted plants well branched low down dont buy single stemmed plants miserable specimens which will be leggy and bare at base of plant in years to come.

Ado 2 · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 9:47 pm Post subject:

You can plant bare root holly .. I have done it. ! ? !

engineshed · Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 5:19 am Post subject:

Thanks greengage but my question is what sex ratio can I expect with 300 random plants that are too young to know by looking at them

Ado 2 · Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 7:19 am Post subject:

You won't know basically, you will be taking s chance. Best to buy some females in pots like Greengage says slso

Greengage · Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 7:45 am Post subject:

Bare rooted plants are usually decideous and dont loose water through their leaves in winter because they are not there. Holly is evergreen and cannot be supplied barerooted as they will loose water and leaves throuhg stress. yes you can plant them bare rooted if they are lifted from the ground and replanted immediatlely. Holly is available from nurseries in pots or root balled if supplied rootballed they are usually lifted from the field in Feb/march. We stocked holly in seperated beds on the nursery Male one side females the other, this time of year most females if pollinated will have berries.
But back to your quuestion, try picking the lotto numbers same chance no matter what the nursery man/woman tells you. unfortunatly most of the holly will not be irish grown it will be imported and will have different genetics ie flower later etc.

if you do purchase plants make sure the are not spindly things as they will always remain so, make sure they are well furnished with branches. if it was me i would but P9s (Very small palnts) better strike rate and they will do better long term but then maybe you want instant hedge.

Edlyn12 · Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 1:14 pm Post subject:

Hello EngineShed,
I would agree with all the above posts as they are pieces of excellent advice. if you already bought the barefoot holly ask for a refund as they are not guaranteed to survive. If the company denies the request for a refund contact them and tell them your problem.If they cannot help through phone or email maybe try sending a letter of complaint to the manager or if a chain company send the letter to the company hq and if possible the head. Hopefully this can help you. Maybe for the refund they can give you potted holly for the hedge and if that is too expensive for the company to give you full potted hedge maybe they will give you potted holly to the value of the bare root an buy the rest of the hedge. It will sure be cheaper than buying the whole hedge from scratch.

Good Luck and tell me if the refund works,
Edlyn12

engineshed · Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2015 8:57 pm Post subject:

Thank you for your replies. I didn't realise the problems with transplanting hollies. Luckily I didn't order any yet and will rethink the situation

Good guy · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 12:46 pm Post subject:

Greengage knows his stuff!