Hi floral

I have already eyeballed a couple of females that are still carrying berries and plan to grab some cuttings later in the year, as an insurance policy.

I was more wondering if it was even possible with dioecious plants. M - M, F - F, should be no problem but F -M? I just don't know.

Thanks

Fof

Interesting question. I’ve found a reference to grafting a male scion onto a female tree to ensure berrying so it presumably takes ok. But converting an entire plant from m to f would need a lot of grafts, or a single graft on a single stemmed plant. In the latter case it wouldn’t be much advantage over a cutting. By the time you know whether your hollies are m or f they’ll be quite big so you'd be doing lots of grafts to convert a whole plant. http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/basic-grafting-techniques-0 Para. 9

Thanks, floral. Interesting link.

It does look like it can be done, but, as you say, too much like hard work.

I've only ever attempted grafting a couple of times before, with some VERY difficult cacti, raised from seed. I never had any success.

I guess my fingers weren't or aren't quite green enough, more chartreuse, maybe.

Where are you getting the hollies from? If from a nursery, then likely they are all females anyway. In the business, female hollies are propagated by rooting cuttings, so they are usually always female. Unless someone wants a male specifically as a pollinator. In that case the nursery should specify that it's a male.

Can you graft a female holly onto a male rootstock? Of course! It doesn't matter what sex it is. And it doesn't even have to be the same species, although that usually helps. Although, I would say rooting cuttings would be much easier than grafting.

I cleft grafted this male aquifolium x cornuta hybrid onto a volunteer hybrid rootstock of unknown sex.

And here is a female Ilex chinensis grafted onto an unknown sex, hybrid rootstock. Chinensis is notoriously difficult to root.

Interesting!!!

I recieved a notification of a comment from Dave in NoVA • N. Virginia • zone 7A, but it doesn't appear.

So, Dave in NoVA, please try again.

I wrote a long answer. Maybe it got sensored because I mentioned 'sex' in it? Holly sex of course.