Skimmia rubella - male and female?

Matthew Pounds

unread,

Oct 3, 2001, 11:38:02 AM10/3/01

to

I am a newbie to gardening and would like to buy a Skimmia rubella - the RHS
Encyc of plants (what a great book) suggests that with Skimmia I need both a
male and female plant if I wish to have berries - which I do. However the
book goes on to say that S~~ rubella is a male clone. Does this mean I need
a female as well - if so can I take any female from the same genus or does
it have to be a rubella female?
Can you recommend a good female Skimmia for me to try?
Many thanks
Martin

Measure

unread,

Oct 3, 2001, 1:17:54 PM10/3/01

to

"Matthew Pounds" <matthew...@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:3bbb315d$0$8510$cc9e...@news.dial.pipex.com...

Martin,
The garden centres seem to sell both, so I would assume that you need both
to get berries. Will the berries not be on the female one? They are very
different in appearance (to my eye) and one of them looks quite
insignificant and unattractive (depends on which one you prefer, I suppose,
as to which you consider unattractive!)
Marie

Rod

unread,

Oct 3, 2001, 2:48:26 PM10/3/01

to

"Matthew Pounds" <matthew...@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:3bbb315d$0$8510$cc9e...@news.dial.pipex.com...

If you get Rubella (all Rubella are males) all you need to do is look around
the garden centres to find one or more females, doesn't even matter if the
staff know aren't knowledgable because female plants will have berries on
anyway so just find plants you like - the name of the clone doesn't matter.
Apart from pollination it's nice to have male & female Skimmias if you have
room, you get berries and the benefit of the better flowers on the males.

Rod

Susan Young

unread,

Oct 4, 2001, 8:22:33 AM10/4/01

to

Matthew Pounds <matthew...@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message

> I am a newbie to gardening and would like to buy a Skimmia <snip>.

However the
> book goes on to say that S~~ rubella is a male clone.

Skimmia japonica 'Rubella' , like many males , has much better flowers and
scent and personally I think that is their chief attraction .However, if you
want berries plus flowers that are reasonable, Skimmia japonica ssp.
reevsiana is a good choice and what is more it is hermaphrodite. Veitchii is
a good female.

Sue Y

Steele Family

unread,

Oct 4, 2001, 1:09:58 PM10/4/01

to

Hi all,
This interested me as we inherited a skimmia when we moved to this house 6
years ago. I read about the male and female species and needing both to get
berries but after reading the last post, the puzzle is solved I think. Our
shrub is quite large now and has both flowers and berries and I couldn't
work out how as was sure there was only one plant and we have no other
skimmias in sight. I presume that ours must be the aforementioned reevsiana
and therefore manages to fertilise itself! By the way, I took a cutting last
year to put in a different place and this year have had berries and flowers
as parent. Thanks for info.
Liz Steele.

Chris Hogg

unread,

Oct 5, 2001, 1:01:46 PM10/5/01

to

Don't know about s. rubella, but IIRC one male will be sufficient to
pollinate five females.
--
Chris
De-* virgin for e-mail reply