Holly - Ilex
I have seen many Holly hedges and we have a holly mixed in with our hedge, we did not plant it but I think its seed dropped from a bird as it sat in the bush next to it.
Holly is an evergreen tree. A holly is easy to identify as it has shiny prickly leaves with sharp points. ... Read review
Advantages: Good for birds and butterflies . Disadvantages: Prickly
...female to produce berries. Some hollies have yellow berries. If you are buying holly at the garden centre the sex should be on the label.
Holly is a good tree to make a hedge from as it makes a thick hedge; it is prickly so is good for a border hedge where you do not want people coming in. Holly is also a good wildlife hedge. Birds love the berries in the winter. I have seen many a blackbird with a red holly berry in its beak song ... ...hedge, adding one or two hollies to an existing hedge is a good idea
. Holly does like a soil that drains well does not like it too wet.
Plant the holly saplings about 12 inches 30 c apart.
The holly is slow growing so takes 2 or 3 years to fill the hedge out.
The time to prune shape your holly is in August.
So start your holly hedge soon and you will be rewarded by wildlife visiting and berries for your ... more
Holly - Ilex
I have seen many Holly hedges and we have a holly mixed in with our hedge, we did not plant it but I think its seed dropped from a bird as it sat in the bush next to it. Holly is an evergreen tree. A holly is easy to identify as it has shiny prickly leaves with sharp points. Actually there is one holly that does not have points on its leaves .The leaves of the holly is green and some are variegated with cream. The female holly produces red berries that are used at Christmas for decoration. To get holly berries there must be a male tree nearby to pollinate the female to produce berries. Some hollies have yellow berries. If you are buying holly at the garden centre the sex should be on the label.
Holly is a good tree to make a hedge from as it makes a thick hedge; it is prickly so is good for a border hedge where you do not want people coming in. Holly is also a good wildlife hedge. Birds love the berries in the winter. I have seen many a blackbird with a red holly berry in its beak song and mistle thrushes, redwings and, fieldfares are among the other birds that eat holly berries. Although birds love the berries they are poisonous to humans. The holly blue butterfly will lay its eggs on the flower buds of the holly and the caterpillar will eat it. The holly flowers are white. Bees love to sup the nectar from the flowers The Robin, thrush's goldfinches and some other birds will nest in a holly tree as it provides good protection from predators. Underneath a holly leaf litter collects do not remove it as it is a haven for hedgehog's slow worms and other small mammals to hibernate in.
Winter early spring time is a perfect time to plant a holly tree or hedge, adding one or two hollies to an existing hedge is a good idea . Holly does like a soil that drains well does not like it too wet. Plant the holly saplings about 12 inches 30 c apart. The holly is slow growing so takes 2 or 3 years to fill the hedge out. The time to prune shape your holly is in August.
So start your holly hedge soon and you will be rewarded by wildlife visiting and berries for your Christmas decorations
Advantages: Evergreen, flowers, berries, good for beasties Disadvantages: Difficult to tell the girls from the boys
...is sex. There are male hollies and female hollies. Male hollies produce flowers with pollen, with the potential to fertilise female hollies. (Sorry if I’m being too graphic. Gets a bit close to the bone sometimes, this gardening/nature thing.). Female hollies also produce flowers, with the potential to be fertilised by the pollen from male hollies. You know what’s coming next, don’t you?
If you want berries, you need two hollies, a male and a female, ... ...deed. But as we all know, insects cover a lot of ground. Like, they will cover the ground between you and your neighbour. So if you have a town garden, the chances are someone else’s holly will fertilise yours. If it’s female. Otherwise you will always be the provider.
Simple so far? Now it gets better. How do you know if your holly is male or female? With the common holly (Ilex aquifolium), you don’t. Botanists with microscopes and cutting edge ...
Aspen 23.12.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Hollies
Advantages: Pretty , attractive to butterflies Disadvantages: Spikey
I treated myself to a garden plant this weekend a sea holly, Eryngium bourgatii. This is a very pretty plant with green leaves divided into spikes in a frost pattern. This mound of dark blue/green leaves have silver veins in them.
A stout branched stalk will grow up from the leaves to about 60cm. This stalk will have small dense, blue cone shaped flowers these each have a spiky silver blue rosaceous collar of leaf underneath it. This plant is very attractive. The flowers are really a fantastic Oxford blue colour.
Eryngium bourgati is a native of Spain,, the Pyrenees and Med coast . It likes chalky sandy soil well drained soil so I hope it will like my Chiltern chalk. The best position for this plant is full sun. It is a perennial frost hardy needs little water so should be simple to look after.
I bought my plant for £5 ...
mumsymary 09.07.2009 (12.07.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sea Holly
Advantages: It's Holly Disadvantages: There Can't Be.
Year on year people ask me: "Why does my holly bush have no berries?? this is becoming more and more common.
In the gardens where I once worked we had many bushes of different hollies.
For example, Ilex 'Golden King', I. 'Argentea Marginata', I. ferox, I. 'Golden Queen', I. 'J.C.van Tol', I. pendula and many more.
Each year over the last several or so, it has become noticeable that we have very few berries, if any, on these plants.
I am of the opinion that the usual male/female availability argument no longer offers a satisfactory answer. Of course the male and female cross fertilisation is essential for berry production but this no longer guarantees results, so another factor must be playing a part.
I have a theory about this which some may share. It would be interesting to hear other horticulturists' views.
Our ...
samcabal 13.10.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Holly
Holly is definatley a plant or should i say a shrub which is what it actually is that we usually asociate with christmas but that is not its only use.
Its most comercial use is to make wreaths as christmas decorations but it is also a very nice shrub to have in your garden.
Holly as i have already said is a shrub, they can be brought as small shrubs from garden centers for about £10 each and soon grow into a lovely shrub with a thick almost tree like trunk at the bottom and lots of smaller brances growing off.
The most important thing about planting holly is where you plant it, it realy needs to be by a wall or a fence as it grows very tall and has a tendancy to get very battered by wind if you plant it somewhere with no protection.
Holly doesnt need a lot of light so you can put it almost anywhere even in shaded areas by ...
danniell 22.06.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Holly
