Skimmia

On behalf of a friend, please could anyone say how you can tell a male/female skimmia and if its necessary to have one of each? Many thanks.

 

Necessary to have about one male to five females I believe, though others may know tighter ratios. Simple rule is male ones don't have berries (!) though this is unlikely to help if there is no sign of the plant having flowered, or it hasn't been fertilized. If necessary get down with a magnifying glass and look inside the tiny flowers for either several anthers (male) or a solitary stigma in the middle (female). Remember there are several species of Skimmia, so you can't plant S.japonica males next to S. laureola females and expect results. Great plants and worth the effort though.

 

Many thanks jazid, have passed that message on.

 

You often see 1 male to 3 females in many plants, as with the packs of hollies and pernettya, from various catalogues. This may be a tad over-kill though.