Holly Shrub

What comes to mind when you hear the word Holly?  Is it snowflakes, holiday cheer and festive decorating?  Holly shrubs offer beautiful greenery for the holidays; it’s easy to imagine stepping outside your front door and clipping holly greenery in preparation for a holiday celebration.

Holly has some wonderful things to offer in addition to holiday decorating: It’s a low-maintenance plant as well as one of the more versatile shrubs you can find.  Hollies come in a wide range of sizes to meet a wealth of landscaping needs. You can find them in a miniature 6” to an expansive 70+ feet tall!  On average, the American Holly ranges from 15’-30’ tall. The leaves also come in a large variety of size, shapes, and textures. They can be small and spineless or large and pointed. Even the berries are found in a variety of colors from orange, yellow, black, and, of course, red. Hollies are steady growers, are easy to prune and usually evergreen, which means they offer year round interest. They are great shrubs to use as a screen, hedge, foundation plant, or specimen plant.  Hollies can be found from zone 4-10.

Hollies prefer moist, but well-drained soil. Avoid wet, saturated soil conditions. Plant your Holly in full sun, to partial shade; the shadier the site, the less vigorous the plant will be and you will see a noticeable decrease in fruit and berry production. Pruning is not required, but can be done in late spring to maintain shape. Hollies are generally disease free, but can be bothered by aphids, scale insects and leaf miners.

Hollies are dioecious, (the male and female reproductive organs are found on separate individual plants of the same species). So, if you want to your plant to bear fruit (berries) then you must have at least one male plant within 30-40 feet of females.  You can also buy two Hollies grown in the same pot (female and male) if you have a small garden. If you do decide to use your Hollies for decorating each Christmas, or holiday season, you should probably plant at least a few Hollies so you aren’t left with large bare spots

Some of the more common varieties to try are:

Chinese Holly: This is a round evergreen shrub that has spiny, shiny leaves. It grows to about 15 feet tall and wide. It requires full sun to partial shade and moist well-drained soil. Attractive red berries in the winter months.

American Holly: Is an erect evergreen that gets to be 40-50 feet in high by 20-40 feet wide. It needs full sun to partial shade. It has leathery dark green leaves with pointy edges. In the summer small green berries appear which eventually change to crimson red over winter. This Holly is good as a specimen tree, hedge or in a woodland garden.

Winterberry Holly: grows up to 10-15 feet wide by 10-15 feet long. Can be used as a shrub or small tree. Pointy green leaves. White flowers appear in the spring  followed by bright red berries. Some fruits turn yellow or orange. This is a good woodland garden or hedge plant. Full sun to part shade.