The winterberry berries did not disappear until the very end of the winter, like cranberry bush viburnum and the big holly.

HA!!! Winterberries flowering, both male and female and I can see the tiny little green berry nubs setting. Am going to get more Red Sprite to finish up my winterberry 'grove' as soon as I get out to a specific nursery (called Peconic River Herb Farm) hopefully this week.

Newyorkrita - Could you please tell me where the Peconic River Herb Farm is (roughly). I'm in Ronkonkoma but have never heard of it. I'm also interested in getting some winterberry shrubs. I was going to order them from Pine Ridge but thought that I might check out your nursery. I'ld appreciate it. Thanks, Debbie

Its off exit 71 on the LIE in Calverton Long Island. Take exit 71, go North to County Rd 24 North. Turn left on River Road. If I remember correctly that would be just before the RailRoad tracks. Its about a quarter mile. The place is absolutly gorgous. Right next to the River with display gardens and picnic benches. The link below is for their website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Peconic River Herb Farm

Just thought of it. If you feel like driving out to Montaulk, there is Fort Pond Native Plant Nursery in the town of Montauk. It's not as big as Peconic River Herb Farm but still a very nice Nursery. I was out there about two weeks ago and got an absolutely gorgous Viburnum Winterthur and some Switchgrass.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fort Pond

Rita - thanks so much for the info. If this rain actually does stop tomorrow, I'll take a ride out there. My daughter is at Exit 70 so that's great. Thanks for the links, too. Debbie

HA!!! Went there and got six Red Sprite females. Birds will feast on berries in my yard this winter.

They didn't have any Winter Red there but had native Sparkleberries. Also a type called Maryland Beauty and another type that I now can't remember the name of. I have a Jim Dandy male polinator so I stuck with the Red Sprite although they had a Southern Gentleman male available for the Sparkleberry, I guess.

Rita - I grow winterberry in upstate New York and have researched a number of cultivars. The Southern Gentleman you mentioned is the latest blooming of the 3 male varieties and is a good pollinator for Sparkleberry and for Winter Red. So if you want to try those other female varieties, Southern Gentleman is a good choice.

Your Jim Dandy should work to pollinate Maryland Beauty as both are early season bloomers.

upstatenewyork, thanks for the winterberry information. They didn't know what pollinated what when I was there so I had to stick to Red Sprite. I had intended to buy the Red Sprite anyway, as I wanted to finish my little Winterberry grove in one area of my hill.

What other male pollinators are there other than Jim Dandy, which I know is the early blooming male, and Southern Gentleman, the late blooming male? I will eventually go for another type of Winterberry for other areas of the yard and therefore need something different than Red Sprite. Always like the pictures of Winter Red, so pretty. The Maryland Beauty was a new one to me.

Went today and checked on the large old Winterberry Shrubs accross the street. They must be ten feet tall. Anyway, I don't know what type they are because they have been there as long as I can remember. Probably species.

Just starting coming into bloom now. Most of the little white blossoms are still closed with about 10 percent open. My Red Sprites that were in my yard from last year are done blooming so these are a later variety, whatever they are. There is also a male somewhere but I can't see him in the thicket.

If Red Sprite are early and these bloom next would they be mid season bloomers? Seems too early for the 'late' ones!

A few yars ago, I planted 2 Winter reds + 1 unidentified male specimen (from nursery). Since this one begins to flower RIGHT AFTER the Winter reds' flowers are really set - i.e. there is SOME overlap - I was wondering if that was sufficient for a full pollination. Or does one need an exact synchronicity for that to happen? In botanical terms, is the pollination of a FEW flowers sufficient to trigger off the fruit production of a WHOLE plant? (Hope this is not a stupid question!!) Many thanks in advance for the lights!

No, you need it to flower on an overlapping schedule. You will probably get afew berries from the last of your females flowers.

My Winter Red females are all planted and have lots of nice green berries on them. I like the way the grouping of them turned out. This way there will be more berries for the birds this winter but some of the shrubs I got this year are still small. So my beryy production should go up in following years.

Thanks Newyorkrita! My results this year finally seem satisfying, considering the plants have been in their present spot for only a couple of years. The overlap of my two Winter reds with my ugly-male-one-I-have-lost-the-identification-tag-of seems to have been sufficient this summer for reasonable good fruit production.

Its not impossible that there are other Winterberries and other males in your neighborhood. I have large old mature winterberry shrubs accross the street from me and they bear fruit heavily every year. They flower later than my Red Sprite and I think they are the species. But there is a male amoung all the female berry setters there and if my Winterberries flowered later than mine do, I am sure they would get pollinated as well from that one.

There is a slight red blush on some of the berries on my Red Sprite Winterberries. Was just sitting out on my patio having lunch as today is the first nice sunny day since last week. Been raining everyday. Anyway the area of my hill that has the Winterberry shrubs looks awsome!!!! (Even if I do wsay so myself).

Let me explain. My property is in multiple levels. The patio is house level and then there is about an eight foot level change. There are stairs going up near one end of the patio. One whole side is the hill going up, very steeply. The furthest from the house has all these old large azelea shrubs so I call it Azelea Hill. Closer to the house from the Azelea shrubs is a large area where the hill is covered with lady fern. Unlike other ferns, Lady fern does do well in shade but it does especially well in mostly sunlight as long as it has lots of water. If the year is dry, it grows in the spring early summer and goes dormant. By misting it in hot dry summers, I keep it growing all summer. Anyway, its lush this year with all the rain and no watering for me.

In amoungst the ferns I have planted the Red Sprite Winterberries. The area looks like a little woodland glade. So pretty with the ferns and lovely shrubs.

I remember that I bought my first Winterberries last year in August and they had ripe red berries on them. So things are late this year.

I thought I was done with the grove of Red Sprite females but noooo.....

Yesterday I was at the nursery where I got all my Winterberries (all Red Sprite). The usual section where they had the Red Sprites only had two or three shrubs, rest were all sold and those potted shrubs had only a berry or two. But alas, in another section as I was wandering around, I found newly arrived Red Sprites that stopped me in my tracks. Covered (just covered) in large ripe red berries with a nice full shrub form, I didn't get past them without picking out the nicest one to bring home. So I now have ten Red Sprite Winterbery females and my one male. So I just have to plant this one in my little Winterberry grove!

As if that wasn't enough, I also bought an 'Afterglow' Winterberry. This one grows quite abit larger than the Red Sprite (7-8 feet acording to the label). It is for a different section of the yard (in my woodland border that I started this spring) and will be a perfect size for its intended spot. Plus I can easily see it from a nice window for winter bird viewing.

I picked the one I have because its covered in numerous berries heavily all along the shrub stems which are just getting a blush of orange now. As the Red Sprites both in my garden and the nursery had their berries already turned bright red, I mistakenly jumped to the conclusion that 'Afterglow' was a late (or at least later) season Winterberry. But upon getting home I looked it up in the ForestFarm Catalog (a great information source even for those things one buys elsewhere) and learned its as early blooming as Red Sprite. Maybe even starts blooming alittle earlier according to the handy chart ForestFarm has in their Catalog showing bloom times of various Winterberries.

I had wanted to extend the ripening time of the berries and knew Red Sprite was one of the earliest to ripen. I had thought that earliest to bloom meant earliest to ripen berries but maybe I was wrong on that. Does the list of bloom sequence not hold true for time of ripe berries?

I planted three Red Sprites and one Jim Dandy last fall. For some reason, got no berries this year. I have to confess, I really didn't notice when, or if, they flowered, etc. They're all nice, full, green shrubs. But no berries.

I have to confess, very little berries either!
What I have is two Winter Reds (female) closely planted with one unidentified (and not very pretty looking!) male that flowers a LITTLE BIT later than the two females. Now what happens is there are MANY berries at first, once the polination is done, but the vast majority drop at some point, while still green. So I suppose then that the overlapping of the flowering is sufficient to set fruits, but that there is another problem. Do they take several years to set fruit properly? Or is the QUALITY of the fruit set, somehow, linked with the fact that the male and female plants flower or not at the exact same time? There is something fundamental here I do not quite grasp...
We have a heavy-ish clay-type soil, that I amended thoroughly with black soil, peat moss and sand, 3 years ago, when I transplanted my winterberries, and that I continue to amend every year with compost and fossile bonemeal. Are they that choosey about the acidic soil?

Seems to me that as soon as the shrubs are old enough to set berries they should have no trouble keeping berries until they are ripe. Mine certainly do and I only started last year. Since Winterberries are often sold with fully ripened fruit while still in the nursery pot, they can't be that finicky. I just bought some like that myself. Sounds as if your shrubs are under some sort of stress.

Though otherwise well exposed AFAIK, they ARE planted in the "root radius" of our large apple tree, though at the "tip" of this perimeter (i.e. if I rely on the branch perimeter). Would this be a real drawback? They look real healthy otherwise. They are 3 to 3-1/2 ft high.
Your help is appreciated!

Ilex verticillata are mostly choosy about moisture. Put them through a dry spell here in KY (and I have circumneutral soils), and they shed their fruit at whatever stage of ripening they might be. I'd make sure they were in as wet a spot as you can provide (ends of downspouts are usually perfect) and add moisture when in the driest part of the year. Knowledgeable Ilex growers also say a shot of nitrogen fertilizer right before flowering also results in high quality fruit display.

If you have overlapping bloom times and sufficient pollinating insects, then that part of the process should be fine. If in doubt, Southern Gentleman is the preferred male pollinator for Winter Red. I'd also suggest getting some of the more northerly provenance I. v., since Winter Red is one of the most southerly in origin.

That is interesting, thanks! It just so happens that I was reading in yesterday's paper that this summer here had a water deficit of about 100 mm from normal values, and that I was not the only gardener that had to run around and water like crazy. Plus, IMO, the sun having been so blazing hot all the time even worsens that deficit in a way.
For next year, to correct that, I will try to come up with special seeping hose connections just for my Alternate-leaf dogwood (affected with apparently the same fruit set problem, and this one being even more in full sun) and my Winterberries, that I would keep burried in the mulch and fitted accordingly.

Can you stand more winterberry questions?? The Ilex verticillata shrubs I had ordered from Fairweather Gardens were delivered today. I bought a 'Winter Gold' and a 'Winter Red,' plus an 'Apollo' as a pollinator.

Questions:
(1) How far apart should I plant? I'm not sure how big these shrubs will get.
(2) How close does the male need to be planted for the females to produce berries?
(3) My soil is fairly sandy; I add compost when I plant. Is it necessary to amend the soil with peat moss?

Winterberries are fairly small shrubs--mature radius of no more than 4 m, but that would be a very mature plant indeed. Mine have been there for about 5 years and are barely 4 feet tall. (I grow the species.)

As for distance between male and female plants--that can be pretty large. For example, I have no idea where the male American holly is in my neighborhood--all I know is that my female always sets abundant fruit. Certainly they can be 100 feet apart.

The berries on my 'Red Sprite' shrubs are such a vivid, striking red. The color just jumps out at you. Don't even have to wait until the leaves drop for the fantastic effect. Beter than last year. I guess because I have more winterberry shrubs plus even the ones from last year seem to have more berries than last year. I have to rate the 'Red Sprite' as must haves in the bird garden.

Winterberries look great with most of the berries still there. I do see the Mockingbird eating on them most days. Funny, it did not seem to start eating the Winterberries until the Chokeweed Berries were totally gone.

The berries on my winterberry bush are still there. It doesn't look like any thing has touched them. The local mockingbird has yet to make an appearance to my yard, while I am watching.

Richard

Here it is early spring with temps ranging from the 30s to high 50s and my winter red and sparkleberry still have almost all their berries. Usually I have only a handful left at this time. I hope my mockers are still around.

Winterberries here got eaten during the colder and snowier part of the winter. No surprise there. Now they are getting ready to set out new blooms. You can just see the flower buds appearing on the leaf axis.

My Winterberries set a very good crop of Berries this year, better than last year. Lots of little green berries all along the stems.

The berries are coloring up now. I love to watch the process. At first there is such a small blush that you almost miss it. But day by day, the red blush on the berries deepens until I can really notice that they are there. Of course, they are not totally red yet but that will come.

I see by checking this thread that the berries are coloring up sooner this year than last!

I must say that of all the shrubs I put in the past few years, and they are many, the Winterberries are right on top of my list as favorites. Maybe it's due to the localtion I planted them in, as I have a little 'grove' of them on the hill directly by my patio off my kitchen door. That is were I hang out during the summer so I have a great view of them. The area looks so wonderfully green and lush with the deep green of the Winterburry leaves and the Lady Ferns that grow amoungst them in that area of the Hill. With the Beries getting red now, the splases of color amoung the green, just catch your attention even more and make it lovelier!

Winterberries look wonderfull this year! The Red Sprites set a heavy crop on the larger of my bushes and some on the smaller as well. I am sure that they will just set even more as they grow bigger and older. The Mockingbird has already been sampleing the berries but nothing has been seriously eating them as yet.

I was going to order some Winterberry plants but saw that there was no mention of females or males. I contacted them and was told that there were males and females but they couldn't tell which was which. Also I saw in a catalog Winter Red Winterberry, says it is a female cultivar produced by cuttings and that it is self pollinizing!!!!!! What do you think?? Should I get a male?

Lesley, You definitely need a male and a female. The best source I had for holly seems to have vaporized. I believe that Dirr has good info on the pairs that pollinate each other. I think Jim Dandy is a male and Red Sprite is a female that pair up nicely. They have been said to pollinate each other. Here is a website that lists a few varieties and the male pollinators. Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Holly Selection Guide

Thanks for your advice. Another question What is the growth rate? I'm hoping fast so that it will soon be above all the snow in the winter so the birds can get to them!!!!

This winter all the berries in my yard, including the winterberry, disappeared real fast. Even the inkberries disappeared at the beginning of the winter. I think the deer must have eaten them.

Richard

My Afterglow Winterberry has never set berries and this spring I see why. It flowers AFTER my male Jim Dandy is done. Still, I would think it would get pollinated by the "wild" winterberries across the street that set fruit every year (so something polinates them) blooming after my Red Sprites.

This past winter the bird pressure on the winterberries in the backyard was light with most of the berries being eaten in March. There are stil some berries left now in April but not much and the Mockingbirds will soon finish them off.

I have found that in the fall and early winter the Mockingbirds eat up all the berries on my Pokeberry plants before they start on the winterberries. As last year I had a small forest of Pokeberries grow, there were lots for the birds to eat. They were so big they looked like short trees. Can't wait to see how big they get this year!

Pokeberry is what i guess they call an "ice cream" plant for the birds, and winterberry is like "spinach." Pokeberry is an excellent bird attractor, yet hardless receives mention in most bird garden texts. I predict your pokeweed plants will be enormous this year. They do spread, i like them but my wife complains about the berry stains.

I planted 5 winterberries this week. I've grown them before - had a robin that pretty much parked himself in the shrub, day after day till they were gone. They are a must for any bird garden.

Got another question on winterberries....I bought 2 on Fri and the guy really tried to talk me out them. He said they really spread and go all over. He didn't think I'd be happy...anybody have a problem with them spreading all over the place? I bought the straight species Ilex verticillata. Mine were sexed, so I thought 2 were enough.

Never heard of them being a nuisance as far as spreading - they are native, so if they sprouted in the neighboring wilds i guess they would just feed more birds. The individual plants do spread as far as size. They seem to be slow growing, but have a large ultimate size.

Well, years later and planting the winterberries was one of the best things I have done. Birds love the berries and there is a Mockinhg bird garding the little grove of berries and eating them all winter long. Yesterday a flock of Cedar Waxwings came thru and ate up the last of the berries so the mockingbird is out of luck until next year.

My Red Sprite Winterberries are just gorgeous and I love these shrubs at all times of the year. They fruit very heavily.

Two Winterberry holly questions. Once Winterberry hollies are established do they need to be watered? I am covering a sunny slope with them in Pittsburgh, PA where we have hot dry spells in the summer. Secondly, how many males per female? I want as many berries as possible since that is why I am planting them. Many thanks.

I don't think they will need watering to survive unless there is extreme drought. But, I think you will get better crops of berries if you can water them.

My brother has some planted on a gentle slope, beyond the reach of a garden hose. He mulches then and they produce fruit, but i think they are happier if you have a low spot or maybe beside a pond.

I've read that you only need one male for 4 or 5 females. If i planted 5 shrubs, i would make 2 of them males, since if one of the males tanks, you lose a pollinator. I learned that the hard way with other hollies.

Winterberry bush stopped producing berries two years ago. What can I do to get them to produce again?

@ Robbie:

Do you have a male Winterberry Holly that blooms at the same time as your female plant, to ensure pollination?

If not, get one.

It is now April 27th and my Winterberry Holly bushes show no sign of leafing out. I an worried they may be dead but when I scratch the bark it all looks green and moist underneath. We had a very mild winter this year and I wonder if they is retarding the leafing out. I also noticed quite a lot of box elder bugs milling around on the ground under the bushes. Could they be eating the foilage as fast as it leafs out? Any ideas appreciated.

I have a few Illex 'Red Sprite' bushese in front of my house near the main entrance. I need to plant a Jim Dandy or male pollinator. The only spot I have open is around the side of the house near the back. It's within 50 feet of the female bushes but it's around the bend and not real close. Does anyone have their holly male and female plants arranged like this with the house in the way? Do you get plenty of berries on the female "red Sprite' bushes?

Seems like someone could have answered this one by now...

Your proposed arrangement of male and female Winterberry Holly plants will be just fine. The bees and other winged insects responsible for pollination will have no trouble finding both plants.

Of course, planting all these in a group usually results in easier copious pollination, but I wouldn't worry about it too much.

You can always use this great reference, too:

http://www.hollysocam.org/

I know this is an old thread but i have a winterberry question regarding leafing out. Last year I planted three Red Sprites in my garden in New Jersey. One is leafing out normally but the other two are only leafing out on one or two of the branches. Is this normal?? Might it be siting as those two are in a bit more shaded location? And shou they eventually catch up?

Thanks!