To answer your question it would be helpful to know what region of the country your zone 5 garden is in (you may want to add that info in your preferences...I would be happy to post the instructions for you). It would also be helpful to know if your neighborhood has discovered/agreed to some long ago forgotten plan. kt

That should be OK. Hollies are insect-pollinated, and that is within flying range.

Resin

A person I'd consider the authority on hollies in the Eastern USA has told me that 1 male within 1/2 mile (I think that's a kilometer roughly) is enough.
When I bought a number of I. X koehneanas I did decide to buy 2 males in case something happened to one of them.

Funny that holly questions continue to show up here. I guess they are honorary conifers.

Yes, BUT, that is if you have some bees or other dependable flying insects in your area. I'm guess I'm just complaining about the lack of bees. Perhaps you're luckier than those of us here in northern Kentucky. I haven't seen a honey bee or bumble bee for 2 years now. Not too many wild bees here in town either. But I hope you get some berries on your hollies.

Lainey

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.