Planted four in spring 2005.
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| Here they are in May 2007 |
Moreno planted four China Girl hollies in between the spruces on the berm in Spring ‘05. They need shearing to keep some shape, several times during summer, but they’re easy to shear. Nice glossy foliage.
First winter (‘05 ‘06) they got desiccated and deer ate them, but winters since they’ve looked good. Although there were supposed to be 3 females and a male, they all set red berries. It's possible all are female and some other nearby holly is fertilizing them.
Winter ‘09 branches on the top 1/3 were stripped and bare looking, but it may not be deer browse. Could it just be winter damage? They did recover from similar looking problems in prior years (which I thought was deer, not so sure now).
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| And nicely nestled in among the spruces and groundcover yellowroot 10/30/2010 |
Nice white flowers in June, but inconspicuous.
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| December 14, 2010 |
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| December 14, 2010 |
I have been shaping these hollies each year, and in 2012 they finally bulked up and formed nice pyramids interspersed with the spruces.
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| March 12, 2012 |
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| June 16, 2012 |
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| October 7, 2012 |
They are rich green, full of berries in winter, and have become dense and shapely. But the biggest attribute is how they fill in the middle layer, as an element of a complex planting, not just as specimens by themselves.
I am keeping them trimmed into sharp pyramids, which I like in the mix on this berm. Lots of berries in 2013. . . I'm still not sure where the pollinator is, as they all set berries.
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| 10/30/13 |
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| 11/14/13 |
2014 was a disaster for these blue hollies. The harsh winter burned them beyond recognition. the desiccation went all the way through to the interior branches and no amount of pruning would save them.
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| 4/2/14 |
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| 4/2/14 |
I did try to prune the browned leaves off, but nothing was left. This is not how a blue holly is supposed to look.
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| 4/28/14 |
Did the damage occur because I had pruned them into pyramidal shapes too late in the fall? Hard to tell. Nearby boxwoods were badly burned too, although the boxes along the east side of the house were fine, and the Ilex opaca nearby had no burn whatsoever.
In any event, by 2014 the Ilex meserveae were crowding the spruces and needed to go. They filled a nice niche for a few years as punctuation points between the growing conifers, but they finally were all taken out in spring 2014.
Propagation:
Softwood cuttings in Spring, plant in Fall. Or semi-ripewood cuttings in summer, overwinter in coldframe.
