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The Holly bears a berry...

By Lorraine Kiefer
Triple Oaks Nursery & Herb Garden


Reprinted with permission, all rights reserved.


Many musicians sing this old carol and I found many versions on google/u tube and enjoyed hearing it once more.click hear to experience this old folksong There are other carols such as the Holly and the Ivy and Deck the Halls with boughs of Holly that are sung this time of the year too.

I always like to remember my fond holly holiday memories when i realize it is time to write about one of my favorite trees, the holly. They are so glorious this time of the year and they grow so well in our area they deserve a yearly appluse.
My Dad loved and grew hollies and we spent a lot of time in December picking and gifting beautiful bunches of holly. He had many 'holly' friends and was a member of the holly society. Since a friend, Jane Christy reminded me of this group I am going to join now.

There are many types of hollies and most are evergreen. But a few even loose their leaves spot spotlighting their brilliant berries in winter. All hollies have the common name Ilex. One of the natives found growing here is the towering American holly whose botanical name is Ilex opaca. Most hollies like a well drained but moist soil with lots of woodsy humus. They do fine in acid soil and will grow in full sun or light shade. Large groupings of holly are often found deep in south Jersey swamps. Mulch will simulate a woodland environment in a yard and keep these woodlanders' roots cool.

One lesser-known holly that is becoming popular our area is the awesome foster holly. It is glossy and shiny with tons of red berries. One good thing about it for most homeowners is that it does not get as large and bulky as the huge American holly. Come get one now.

Foster holly is a hybrid that occurred between a narrow-leafed form of the Dahoon Holly as the female parent and American Holly as the male in the union. The trees grow 15 to 30 feet tall with a spread of 6 to 8 feet, giving them a narrow, conical form. The thin leaves have very soft spines so they do not pinch like the American holly.

The female produces an abundance of red, pea-sized fruit even on young plants. The male pollinator can be either a 'Foster or a more common American holly.

Foster holly is an excellent plant for planting near an entry or off the corner of the house to provide vertical accent. Like most plants with this strikingly conical form, it can be grown as a freestanding specimen or massed together. It also makes an excellent tall evergreen screen.

All holly trees can be sheared as needed or left to being natural. If plants ever get too large, they can be stubbed back severely in the spring just before new growth starts. Many hollies will even come back from the root.

A deciduous holly, like the winter berry (ilex verticillata) loses its leaves to reveal outrageously beautiful red berries. The most handsome stand of winterberry is across the creek and only accessible by canoe, so now we planted them along this side of the stream. (For years when our sons were growing up they would take turns on wintry days paddling a canoe over so I could precariously lean over into the shrubs and cut branches! Luckily we never capsized!) These are one of my favorite winter plants as the colorful berries last long into late winter, giving beautiful color to the garden.

Most hollies are dioecious, which means that that the male and female flowers are born on separate plants. Thus you will need at least one male for every five female plants for a good show of berries

When the leaves have all fallen and the landscape becomes bleak, hollies really stand out and commandeer our appreciation. As I write I look out of my window and notice the glossy holly now filled with songbirds. More distant are huge pines, spruce and hollies around the perimeter of the property, as well as a native cedar covered with blue berries all give color and life to the garden in winter. Many of these were planted more than 45 years ago by my Dad and my uncle Ed who both loved hollies.

As a child I spent many summer hours watering hundreds of hollies. My Dad collected hollies. He would find small ones in the woods and move them to our yard. He would also buy unusual ones wherever he could find them. He always took great care of them. The summer he moved the trees the block or two from our old house to our new house my brother and I would have a pile of comic books and a sturdy milk box that we moved around the perimeter of the large property as we waited for the hose to thoroughly soak each large American holly. We did a through job and every holly lived, still majestically gracing the property! It was then that I realized that even though he found many of his American hollies in local fields and woods, because of the bees and genetic variety they all had their own unique characteristics. The coloring of both the leaves and the berries often differs from one American holly to another. Today many of theses same hollies are lofty giants all around both my mother's and our home.

Plant a holly and enjoy this Southern New Jersey treasure this holiday season.