barefootinct: I planted 3 Ilex Crenata Chesapeakes last August. All three of mine survived our SE PA Winter. There is one thing I noticed about them but I do not know if it is caused by something specific to my soil, ground moisture, etc. I have about 20 or so different hollies--mostly blues. My Chesapeakes are just now starting to sprout new growth. My other hollies have been at it for some time. So, if yours don't start putting out new growth when other hollies are growing, it may just be a feature of this variety. Maybe someone else can tell us if their Chesapeakes are late growers too.

Hey bboy! No, there are no spots or any other signs of problems... as the male is within feet of the female, same sun exposure, the soil is the same and all "acid" fertilizer applications are identical. The plant looks great in every other way other than it lacks the quantity of leaves! That's why I'm posting, I am at a loss! Let me know what you think, bboy! Mekales

May I have some please Thanks you.

Interesting. In the suburbs around DC, the bees seemed to start vanishing in the mid 90s, presumably because of the varroa mites and other ills. The bumblebees were still around but there did seem to be fewer of them. I now live in a rural area of Maryland and see bees all the time. I can only assume there must be a keeper somewhere in the town - but the funny thing is there are quite a few more bumblebees here, so maybe some other factor is at work. I don't know. Bees aren't really an interest of mine. But I've seen other insects pollinating holly leaves so it shouldn't depend solely on bees. There was a colony of the dreaded european hornets in my yard. They were attracted to the bark of some hideous, pesky old lilacs that I've mostly disposed of in 2 years. As an exotic species I had no qualms about killing them off...first by spraying their tree hideout, but, more importantly, almost every night in the autumn 2006 I vacuumed them up from an outside light. The stupid things are the only stinging insects attracted to light. I must have sucked well over 50 of them up (sometimes as many as 6 or 7 a night) and that, coupled with the lilacs being destroyed, seems to have banished them from my yard. They are mean as heck. I wasn't stung vacuuming them, but I was stung one afternoon in the garden. I was running as fast I could, he still stung me almost 50 feet aware from where I'd disturbed him. I think even wasps are more laid back, although yellowjackets might be more aggressive. (btw the vacuuming works well in autumn because the cool nights make them lethargic) Anyhow It's truly, truly painful, it was on the back of the head and I felt like I'd been hit with a hammer. Since hornets eat honeybees, hopefully I will also further the return of honeybees to my garden. I truly can't believe all of them are coming from a professional hive somewhere. There are no fruit orchards w/in 5 miles of here, at least.