Gardening and Horticulture - Does type of male holly matter?

We just had a bunch of hollies planted (i believe they are either "blue maid" or "blue princess"). i went to the garden center, and all they had for male hollies were "china boy" which the tag says should be paired with "china girl". All of the females we had planted were I. merservae (?sp) as is the male that I bought so shouldn't it be able to fertilize the females even though it isn't the same cultivar or are those names just trademarks? Thanks.
Dave

Hi Dave

Ummm... you write that you already bought a male plant... did it 'expire'? If not, you only need one in your yard (depending on how big your yard is, of course ;) ) to pollinate all the female plants.

Generally speaking, if the cultivars are different, but the species are the same, you should get fruit, but there are no guarantees :(

If fruit is produced, it might be sterile or produce some new cultivars, but if you are only interested in the berries for show, as long as the fruit IS produced, you're laughing :cool:

If you want a sure thing, keep looking for a male of the same Genus, species and cultivar (probably Blue Prince) if you have to replace the one you have...

Hope someone who really knows what they are talking about will correct me if I'm wrong ;)

Howie

The reason the hollies are paired with a specific male to a specific female is so that they bloom at the same time so that pollination can occur. Unfortunately, I can't answer the question whether or not the specific male that you have will bloom at the same time as the females that you have. You could wait to see if you get berries, or you could seek out the companion for your females. You will need to know exactly which females you have so you can get the correct male.

Aren't you glad we humans don't have that problem?
:D

Newt