My goodness. I might have to buy a Nellie Stevens and carry it next to mine to see the differences. So far my best moment identifying plants was with Fraxinus family ash trees. The "U" shaped bud of the Fraxinus Americana white ash helped me out. Anything similar I should be looking for? The foliage is too variable. My two identical Holly of some kind trees both bloomed lightly last year. Neither has ever had a berry. Bloom time this year is soo early. Of course March was the warmest in 130 year of record keeping. heard it would have been a top ten warm April! My plan is to hunt down dwarf/small varieties of both Ilex opaca and Ilex cornuta and hope I get lucky.

Here are some pictures of my bigger Hollies from March of last year. I think opinions were split between Ilex cornuta but leaning towards Nellie Stevens. Sam said"Your female holly is blooming now and has green stems, it has no I. opaca blood in it. Try searching your state's botanical garden website and compare to Nellie Stevens. NS is self-fruiting, did your tree bloom last year, did it make fruit? If not you may have one of several cornuta hybrids."

Many Ilex can hybridize, but only if they overlap in bloom time and if there are pollinating insects present to transfer the pollen (or humanoids). So - see when each of your species of hollies come into bloom, and see whether you have a shot at some interesting seedlings. Otherwise, get the late Fred Galle's fine tome Hollies: The Genus Ilex for more than you can possibly understand about everything holly. BTW: The annual meeting of the Holly Society of America is coming up on October 22-25, 2009 at Martha's Vineyard, MA. Be there or be square.

American Holly can actually grow in a lot colder zones than people realize. I have several small ones I am growing here in Iowa zone 5 with no problem. On really cold winters it gets down to -30 to -35. Of course those are the extremes, the average hits -15 to -20. I originally moved here from PA and they were very common out there. One of the most beautiful trees in the winter. Ilex Opaca is very hard to find in the nursery trade. You can check out Forrest Farm or Holly Ridge Nursery. There is a Nursery in Butler, PA called Orlando Pride Nursery where they bred several cultivars to take heavy snow loads and put up with the extreme cold.