Hi there

I read an article by Charlie Nardozzi on your website recently and would like to thank you for sharing such great info on the net.

As people who obviously know a great deal about these plants, I wondered if I could possibly run a question by you? I have recently bought some of these:

http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants...

The company - Crocus - insist that their variety is self fertile. In fact, they told me that they have double checked with their specialist grower in Holland, who have in turn confirmed that there is no pollination partner for the honeyberry 'Kamtschatica' that they supply to Crocus. Almost everything else I have read concerning honeyberries would suggest otherwise and that a suitable pollinating partner is necessary for fruiting. When questioned further, Crocus say that perhaps "American websites are referring to the species plant rather than the cultivated form we sell".

I wondered what your thoughts might be on this matter.

Also, the plants I have a 2 years old and in 2 litre pots. They are around 15-20cm tall. Does that sound right for 2 year old plants?

Hope you don't mind me asking and of course I totally understand if you are too busy to respond.

Many thanks either way

Max

Self fertile mutations of a species that is normally self infertile are pretty rare, but it can happen. More likely is another scenario similar to this:

Holly plants are male or female, and you must have both for pollination if you want berries on the female plant. There is a "type" of holly marketed as self fertile: Merry Berry is the name, I think. But actually, what they did is plant a female plant and a small male plant in the same pot, so the buyer thinks he is getting berries from one plant, when in fact it is two (a male and a female).

I can't really say if this is true, but planting two different honeyberries in the same pot as one plant is the most probable way to achieve the "self pollination" that is advertised.