Distinguishing between male and female holly (Ilex species) plants is pretty straightforward once the plants begin to flower next spring. In the case of seed-propagated hollies, flowering generally occurs after five to eight years. Male plants produce profuse numbers of whitish flowers, each with four prominent stamens that stick up between the petals. When the anthers ripen and split open, you can see the sticky yellow pollen. Female hollies, by contrast, produce fewer blooms, and each bloom has in its center a green, pea-like pistil that will develop into the berry surrounded by four poorly developed, nonfunctional stamens. Because hollies are insect-pollinated, it's possible to get fruit from a pair spaced as far apart as one-eighth of a mile. But you will improve your berry set by locating the two sexes closer together.

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