Mahonia aquifolium is referred to as Oregon grape or sometimes Oregon grape holly or just grape holly but not Oregon holly. And the plant in the photo is not a mahonia. This is definitely an Ilex, most likely Ilex aquifolium or as Dorie indicates, a variegated English holly. It most likely did not produce berries previously because there was nothing available to pollinate it. Holly cross-pollination is complicated - flowering times must be concurrent as well as using compatible species. The Blue Prince could cross-pollinate as one of its parents is I. aquifolium. American holly (Ilex opaca) could also serve to pollinate. The male plants do not need to be extremely close by (within ~400' or so) but the bloom periods must coincide. Berries may or may not be present or produced in much quantity otherwise. You would have much better success if you obtained a distinctly male cultivar of English holly, like 'Silver Queen' (yes, its a male, despite the name :-)). 'Gold Coast' is another male cultivar.

Thanks, we'll have to think about whether to cut back and hope it regrows vs getting something else in there sooner. We're definitely paying attention to long-term sizes and not just what things look like today. >"never forget.. foundation plantings are planted to hide the foundation. NOT ON THE FOUNDATION .." Agree entirely! That holly is only 1 foot off the now house because we cut it back -- the holly and other shrubs were fully pressed up against the house itself. A large cypress-y thing was even half-way up the dining room windows, pressed against the glass. Every single foot of exposed foundation around the entire house had plants in direct contact, at least during the growing season. A 20 foot-tall willow tree was planted less than two feet from the foundation, a large hawthorn tree was basically laying on top of the whole garage roof, and vines were starting to pull the electrical and cableTV wires off the house!!! Rose bushes impinged on the driveway so badly that the passenger doors of cars were inaccessible. What's odd is that the previous owner, a 60-something single man, wasn't neglectful or an invalid in general, in most ways he was decent with maintaining the house. But he apparently loved the feel of living in a jungle, totally overgrown everywhere. The interior was full huge ferns and the like.

Well done, bragu! Here's another excerpt with more variations, one for more water retention and one for less. If you look at all the different permutations in both Al's and other people's posts about what works for them, you start to get a feeling for how the combinations work. "You'll find frequent complaints that the gritty mix doesn't hold enough water for dry or arid locations; often, the complaint is loudest from the direction of those that have never used the gritty mix. Ultimately, the complaint illustrates the fact that the complainant paid too much attention to the recipe and not enough (or no) attention to the fundamentals of the concept the soil is based on. The gritty mix is adjustable for water retention. By altering the ratio of grit to Turface (while keeping the bark fraction at around 1/3 the o/a volume) you can make the medium more or less water-retentive. The good part about that is, because of the larger particle size it allows you to increase water retention w/o creating a perched water table or sacrificing macro-porosity. Media that can go weeks between waterings owe the long intervals to a store of perched water that limits root function and creates other havoc in the rhizosphere. Example: * 3 parts screened bark, 4 parts screened Turface, 2 parts screened grit equals a medium that holds considerably more water than the 1:1:1 (3:3:3) mix. * 3 parts screened bark, 2 parts screened Turface, 4 parts screened grit equals a medium with considerably less water retention than 1:1:1 (3:3:3)." Lenore

They are growing in cramped spaces ===>> says who .. and are you sure you cant deal with other things to give them more space ... how about a pic of the overall site.. if you want to discuss that ... free range seedlings find and use the space they find ... im wondering if you just have some preconceived notions of them??? .. why do you need to force your aesthetic on them ... and if you have deer ... and they dont bother them ... perhaps they are filling other uses ... in other words.. dont open up a big hole in your scape.. and then struggle to fill it for other reasons ... ken