{"id":2819,"date":"2020-03-27T00:05:47","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T07:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-578\/"},"modified":"2024-04-13T12:36:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T19:36:00","slug":"hollies-for-the-puget-sound-area","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/hollies-for-the-puget-sound-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollies for the Puget Sound area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>We are planning a 30&#8242; x 100&#8242; planting bed to screen a metal building<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>and have been thinking about using a variety of holly for the background evergreen tree in this bed. Do you have any recommendations for varieties that do well in the Puget Sound area and are as pest free as possible, and yet have good color, berries and form. Setting has: sun, good soil, irrigation if needed and no height restrictions.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The local resource, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greatplantpicks.org\/\">Great Plant Picks<\/a>, recommends the following hollies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ilex aquifolium &#8216;Ferox Argentea,&#8217; or hedgehog holly. Note that this clone<br \/>\ndoes not produce berries, which is considered by some to be a positive<br \/>\nattribute, as berries can lead to nuisance plants sprouting in the<br \/>\ngarden.<\/li>\n<li>Ilex crenata &#8216;Convexa&#8217; (convex-leaf Japanese holly)<\/li>\n<li>Ilex crenata &#8216;Mariesii&#8217; (columnar Japanese holly): this is a female clone<br \/>\nwhose flowers will develop black berries if pollinated.<br \/>\nGreat Plant Picks offers more information and images.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ilex aquifolium (the species) is now considered an invasive plant in our<br \/>\narea. The Tacoma News Tribune published an article on this topic, with suggested alternatives. Excerpt:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just don&#8217;t plant English holly (Ilex aquifolium), the species with the<br \/>\ndark, glossy leaves and bright red berries that most people picture when<br \/>\nthey hear the word &#8216;holly.&#8217; This non-native species has become invasive<br \/>\nhere and isn&#8217;t recommended for home gardens (see box for more<br \/>\ninformation), so leave it to the professional growers.<br \/>\nBut that still gives gardeners about 400 species of holly to choose from,<br \/>\nand many can be seen at the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle, which<br \/>\nhas the second-largest holly collection in the U.S.<br \/>\n&#8216;Our U.S. native Ilex opaca (American holly) and its many cultivars are<br \/>\nunderutilized and in many cases better ornamentals than (the) Ilex<br \/>\naquifolium counterparts,&#8217; said David Zuckerman, horticulture staff<br \/>\nsupervisor at the arboretum, which is part of the University of<br \/>\nWashington Botanic Gardens.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Like American holly, some hollies have the &#8216;traditional&#8217; holly look,<br \/>\nwhile other holly species display different charms.<br \/>\nOne of Zuckerman&#8217;s favorites is the deciduous Ilex verticillata. Although<br \/>\nthe plant&#8217;s oval leaves drop in the fall, &#8216;the berries persist through<br \/>\nwinter and can really liven up the winterscape,&#8217; he said.<br \/>\nJapanese holly (Ilex crenata) is a family of &#8216;quite handsome shrubs&#8217; with<br \/>\nsmall evergreen leaves and black berries, Zuckerman said. These hollies<br \/>\nlook more like boxwood than holly, and lend themselves to hedging and<br \/>\ntopiary. &#8216;I really enjoy some of the whimsical dwarf-forms,&#8217; he said,<br \/>\nsuch as Sky Pencil, which grows 6 to 8 feet tall but just 12 to 18 inches<br \/>\nwide, adding a vertical accent to the landscape.<\/p>\n<p>When adding holly to the garden, remember that hollies are dioecious and<br \/>\nboth male and female plants are needed for the female to produce berries,<br \/>\nZuckerman said. Good companion plants for evergreen hollies include<br \/>\ndeciduous choices like witch hazel, lindera (spicebush) and corylus<br \/>\n(filbert), Zuckerman said. And Asian plants such as Japanese maple and<br \/>\nbamboo can partner well with the more formal-looking Japanese hollies, he<br \/>\nsaid.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if you might also consider other plants which have colorful<br \/>\nfruit but are less likely to become invasive. This <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rainyside.com\/archives\/WinterBerries.html\">article<\/a>,<br \/>\nfrom local website Rainy Side Gardeners, lists a few possibilities, like<br \/>\nArbutus, Gaultheria, Mahonia, Skimmia, Nandina, and Sarcococca.<\/p>\n<div class=\"taxonomy-keyword has-text-align-right wp-block-post-terms\"><a href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/keyword\/ilex\/\" rel=\"tag\">Ilex<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are planning a 30&#8242; x 100&#8242; planting bed to screen a metal building and have been thinking about using a variety of holly for the background evergreen tree in this bed. Do you have any recommendations for varieties that do well in the Puget Sound area and are as pest free as possible, and yet have good color, berries and form. Setting has: sun, good soil, irrigation if needed and no height restrictions. &nbsp; The local resource, Great Plant&#8230;<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/hollies-for-the-puget-sound-area\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hollies for the Puget Sound area<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[408],"class_list":["post-2819","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-ilex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/2819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=2819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}