Holly, Winter’s Berries

By Lorraine Kiefer December 1, 2008

It’s beginning to look a lot like winter, with berries everywhere!

Colorful berries are one of the joys of a winter landscape and garden. They sparkle like jewels on a sunny day or when there is a snowfall. I love to collect them for holiday decorating and also enjoy seeing them outside my window. Birds love to roost in the evergreen boughs of holly making the idyllic scene look like a Christmas card.

Pyracantha, also called fire thorn, has bright orange berries that are relished by bluebirds. These also can be used in flower arrangements and wreaths. Cardinals are fond of nesting in these very protective shrubs. They need almost full sun to do well and look really great against a brown, beige, green or white building. They also will make a nice privacy hedge if allowed to grow naturally.

A little used but very easy-to-grow native plant is red chokeberry. It is so hardy it will even grow as far north as zones 4 and south to zone 9. It is a deciduous shrub it often is wider than its four feet height. It might grow a bit taller if in rich, moist soil. It will adapt to almost any soil type. The beautiful white blooms of spring produce profuse red fruits in fall and the foliage has excellent red autumn color.

‘Brilliantissima’ is a great variety of aronia that has the most flowers and fruits. The bright red fruit of the red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) is a good source of winter food for birds.

A fantastic easy to grow plant that also has berries is the Viburnum. Several species of this deciduous or evergreen shrub will grow in sun, part sun or even shade and a few are fragrant. These versatile plants are really wonderful to naturalize and are very attractive to gardeners and birds alike. The blooms are usually in spring, followed by fruits or berries in red, blue or black. Finches, game birds, mockingbirds, thrushes, waxwings, Cardinals, and woodpeckers relish them.

Another colorful native shrub that is among my very favorite is the deciduous native holly called winterberry (Ilex verticillata). These shrubs lose their leaves following the frost. This seasonal change however reveals outrageously beautiful red (or orange) berries. The most handsome stand of winterberry is across the creek and only accessible by canoe.

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 for Christmas wreaths and arrangements! Luckily we never capsized.

Now we have planted them along this side of the stream, as well as in our other gardens. By the looks of the ample berry crop, the bees are bringing lots of pollen from the nearby swamps. Even the shrub out by Delsea Drive that is planted in a low, damp spot near the old swamp maple in our driveway is covered with berries. Although they often grow near a stream in the wild, these plants adapt well to most any garden situation as long as they are watered well during a dry spell. These are one of my very favorite winter plants as the colorful berries last long into late winter, giving beautiful color to the garden.

Nandina, one of the most beautiful of all the shrubs in our garden, is just beginning to wear its winter dress. This is a shrub with shiny, mostly evergreen compound leaves that often go from a youthful coppery/purplish red to deep green in summer and then often back to red or burgundy in late fall and winter. Glistening bunches of shiny red berries set like luxuriant clusters of jewels among the leaves are awesome this time of the year.

A colorful display of pinkish buds open in spring to white blooms that are less than 1/2-inch size but grouped in large 8-15 inch panicles or clusters. These in turn give way to spectacular clusters of red berries that ripen from September to October with their biggest show being holiday time through the early spring.

Although the plant is a longtime favorite in the states south of us, especially in Colonial Williamsburg, it has been rather under used in the Delaware Valley. When people see the ones near the front doors of both our house and the shop, they ask what it is. Since it is one of my favorite plants, I have been planting Nandina here and there in semi-shady or morning sunspots so I can enjoy the colorful, unique foliage and the sparkling clusters of red berries to use in my holiday decorating. But most of all, I love the show the plant puts on all winter. It isn’t till early in the spring that the birds eat the berries of this pretty plant.

These plants are easily transplanted from containers into your garden and they’ll adapt to most extremes of soil. They do, however, prefer moist, fertile soil and will become most awesome in this type of environment. In moist situations with good organic soil they can take full sun, but will also do quite well in part shade. They will grow under oaks, in beds of ground cover or in natural boarders and make a wonderful showing. Since the foliage, the flowers and the berries are so outstanding, they are best showcased where they can really be seen and enjoyed.

Hollies are always a winter favorite.

I love to write each winter about one of my favorite families of trees, the hollies. They are so glorious this time of the year and they grow so well in our area they deserve a yearly applause.

There are many types of hollies and most are evergreen. The ones that do loose there leave really showcase 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. In your yard mulch will simulate a woodland environment and keep these woodlanders’ roots cool.

One lesser-known holly that is just 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.

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 5 to 7 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. One of the prettiest ones ever is just outside the disinter center at the National arboretum in Washington D C.

Most hollies do best in a reasonably good garden soil where they receive some water during dry periods. The soil pH should be on the acid side. While full sun is best for berry production they will do well in medium shade too.

All holly trees can be sheared as needed or left to grow. 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 if cut down.

A deciduous holly, like the winter berry (Ilex verticillata), loses its leaves to reveal outrageously beautiful red berries. These are real show stoppers in any garden. I cut armfuls of branches and add them to my wreaths and arrangements all during December. The birds don’t eat these till later on in the season.

Most hollies are dioecious, which means that that the male and female flowers are 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 old pines, spruce and hollies around the perimeter of the property, as well as a native cedar covered with blue berries. These trees all give color and life to the garden in winter. My Dad and my uncle Ed, who both loved hollies, planted many of these more than 40 years ago.

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 a block or two from our old house to our new house, my brother and I had to water them every few days. We would take a pile of comic books and a sturdy wooden milk box to sit on as we moved around the perimeter of the large property and waited for the hose to thoroughly soak each large American holly. We did a through job and every holly lived. They are all still majestically gracing the property.

It was then that I noticed the hollies did not all look alike. 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.

There are still many other hollies that can also be planted if you like berries and evergreen foliage. Plant a holly and enjoy this ‘Down Jersey’ treasure this holiday season and for years to come.

Triple Oaks will feature their own natural wreaths and arrangements using fresh greens and berries. The above-mentioned plants are also available to plant now. Check our website for wreath classes and other holiday events.