Holly is a safe plant to grow in the garden, its tough as old boots, it has an ability to grow anywhere in the garden. there are varieties ideal for shade, full sun, topiary and container work. An all are evergreen, and some will produce berries in the winter time - which your garden birds will enjoy, and of course you can use for christmas decorations.
There are many varieties on offer, pictured is variety Golden King, this is a female variety (I know a bizarre name for a lady!!), and will produce bright red berries on its variegated golden foliage
There are many varieties on offer, pictured is variety Golden King, this is a female variety (I know a bizarre name for a lady!!), and will produce bright red berries on its variegated golden foliage
Another Holly with a confusing name is Silver Queen, this male variety is a great pollinating partner for other female hollies in the garden, and has wonderful white variegated foliage colour. Silver Queen like Golden King benefit froma sunny position to retain the colourful foliage, if planted in too dark a spot the colour will fade and become far less notable. Another good male variety is Blue Prince.
Anther Holly with cool coloured foliage is Argentea Margenata, this is a Female variety which will have bright red berries which againw ill provide a nice contract with the coloured foliage. Not don't be thinking you need 1 male for 1 female plant, beneficial insects will visit multiple flowers on many plants so 1 male plants can be enough for an entire street. But a good tip is to plant a range of varieties, thus making it exciting for insects to visit as many different plants as possible, thus giving better polination
A more 'traditional' holly is this variety Blue Angel, this differs from the more common holly in that its slower grower, making it ideal for a small garden or for topiary work in pots. its a female variety so should give good berry colour in the winter. The darker coloured leaves allow this plant to tolerate a darker position in the garden.
Our 'Defensive Palnting' leaflet suggests ways that Holly and other prickly garden plants can be used to help reduce crime around the home.
Our 'Defensive Palnting' leaflet suggests ways that Holly and other prickly garden plants can be used to help reduce crime around the home.
Another bright female variety of Holly is this Ilex Gold Flash, which has these bright leaves (golden centred as aposed to gold edged like Golden King. Excellent as a 'filler shrub' for a lareg shrub bed in the garden. The berries will be very attractive to birds and will give great winter colour in the garden. Height wise it makes a nice shrub 6-8' tall, and can be trained well as a pyramid topiary.
the self polinating variety JC Van Tol was a plant we used in the City of Culture Artist Garden project, we have 2 growing which will be trained as topiary pyramids in the garden.
Heres a good offer, you can get a nice mix of 5 different holly shrubs for £24.95 on a special offer from GardeningExpress.co.uk . These are normally £74.95 and on special at £24.95. A great way to get a mix of male and female varieties and to get a nice assortment of colours.
