Differentiating between sexes of trees

[Daluke]

Okay - I’m a bit embarrassed but I mixed a batch of cuttings of male and female trees together.

Is there a way to tell the difference before they leaf and fruit?

[shibui]

What species do you have that are dioecious? I'm not aware of very many that are used for bonsai but as far as I know there is little outward difference between the few that do have separate males and females.

[Daluke]

Ilex

[greg27]

I think you'll be stuck until you get flowers.

[shibui]

Not aware of any obvious differences between male and female Ilex so It sounds like you'll need to keep them all until flowering.
Salutary warning for other would be propagators. The joys of not labeling or keeping things separate.

[TimS]

Not with male/ female but i had that moving house. Had a bunch of flowering cherry and flowering apricot cuttings unlabelled taken from multiple trees that got mixed. Obviously i know which is cherry and apricot, but in the middle of winter as to which cherries are Kanzan vs Mt Fuji an apricot i swore blind was white has just flowered pink