The Holly Bears a Berry

Nature never ceases to amaze. About 20 years ago I planted a very small holly bush, against my own better judgment and the advice of more experienced gardeners. We are not in the most temperate of climate zones. Here the temperature can be three or four degrees colder in the winter months and three or four degrees hotter in the summer months than even that which is a few kilometers to the south of us. But my little bush has grown and thrived and now stands thick and over four feet in height. It has bloomed abundantly year in and year out… But at most, it has only borne half a dozen dispersed red berries to my great disappointment.

Last fall I happened to be in the Garden Centre where I had purchased this plant those many years ago. While there, I learned that the holly needs both a male and a female bush to produce those absent red berries. Why it had taken me so long to discover, I do not know.

There happened to be one small male plant left on the premises. I bought it and skeptically planted it not too far from the original. Alas, I have just noticed that the original bush is now laden with hundreds, if not thousands, of thick clumps of berries, at this point still green. My excitement rises. I can, almost, hardly wait for the yet to arrive summer to turn to autumn. But for the time being, I will satisfy myself with the delayed arrival of summer and those lovely green berries.