Deck your halls with homegrown holly

If you decorate your home with greenery for the coming holiday season, chances are you’ll include a few sprigs of Ilex, popularly known as holly, among the trimmings.

The custom of decking our halls with boughs of holly dates back to the Druids of ancient Britain and Gaul, who hung holly over their doors at Yuletide as a shelter for woodland spirits. The Druids believed the spirits would take shelter in the holly and bring good to the household during the year. Later, Christian symbolism included the belief that the spiny leaves and red berries were a reminder of the crown of thorns and the blood of Christ.

The early English settlers brought the custom of decorating with holly to the New World. The native American holly was one of the first plants sighted by the Pilgrims. Native Americans planted evergreen hollies, their symbol of courage and eternal life, around dwellings for protection. Today, when holly decorates our homes during the winter holidays, we associate it with celebration and good cheer.

Unfortunately, over the years holly has been typecast as a symbol of the Christmas season. That’s a shame, for holly is a plant we can enjoy in the landscape year ’round.

Hollies come in many forms: trees or shrubs, deciduous or evergreen. Mature hollies can range in height from less than three feet to more than 30 feet. Holly berries come in shades of red, white, yellow and black. They all prefer a soil that is neutral or slightly acidic.

More than 300 varieties are found worldwide. Here in the U.S., we grow American, English and Japanese hollies most commonly, but not all of them are hardy in New Hampshire.

One of the hollies commonly used for winter decorations—Ilex aquifolium, the English holly with dark, spiny green leaves and clusters of red berries—isn’t hardy in New Hampshire. It is usually grown and shipped in from the West Coast.

The so-called “blue hollies,” however, will survive our winters. These were hybridized by Kathleen Meserve in the 1950’s on Long Island. World-renowned for her work with the blue hollies, Meserve crossed English holly with the prostrate Ilex Rugosa holly to produce a cold-hardy plant.
Blue hollies are dense plants with glossy, blue-green foliage, red or yellow berries, and purplish  or chartreuse twigs. Commonly available cultivars include Blue Prince and Princess, Golden Girl, Blue Maid, China Girl, and China Boy.
           
The native hollies Inkberry (Ilex glabra) and Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) are both hardy. You’ll frequently find these hollies growing in swampy places. Inkberry is an evergreen shrub with black berries. Winterberry is a deciduous shrub (loses its leaves each fall) with showy red berries that hang on the plant into January and attract birds. Winterberry cultivars Afterglow, Winter Red, Red Sprite and Sparkleberry are noted for their abundant berry production.
           
Other hollies hardy in southern or coastal New Hampshire are the Japanese crenata and American opaca. Hardy to zones 6 and 5, respectively, these do best in more protected locations. Japanese varieties can withstand a root temperature of 26 or 27 degrees F before damage occurs. The blue hollies, on the other hand, can tolerate a root temperature of 12 degrees F.
           
When growing hollies, remember that they bear their male and female flowers on separate plants. If you want berries, you’ll need to plant a male holly nearby for bees to pollinate female plants, which produce the berries. One male plant will usually suffice to pollinate an entire hedge of female plants.
           
One of the nicest aspects of hollies is that most are moderately fast-growing. That means that normally you should be able to prune off some holiday decorations in December without ruining the shape of the plant.

By Margaret Hagen, UNH Cooperative Extension Agricultural Resources Educator