Knowledgebase
Name of Bush #870699
Asked May 30, 2024, 8:06 AM EDT
Carroll County Maryland
Expert Response
Japanese Holly is often grown as a boxwood-like evergreen, since their spineless leaves look so similar to each other. Like other hollies, they either produce male or female flowers (depending on variety), so male plants never fruit, but female plants (if pollinated by a male Japanese Holly) can produce berries. In the case of Japanese Holly, the berries will be inky-black, not red.
Boxwoods do flower, but their blooms are not very conspicuous (they are yellowish-green and about as small as these holly flowers), and like other shrubs (including holly), if pruned heavily and regularly, they might not bloom much since the flower buds would have been cut off.
Miri