Merry berries
Start thinking ahead to Christmas with this most festive of plants – jolly holly
You can’t have Christmas without holly – but don’t limit yourself to a tiddly bunch to stick behind the pictures. Instead, it’s time to think big.
Trained holly trees in pots, pruned into small topiary shapes, are great by the front door. And if you have room for a holly bush in the garden, you can grow your own festive foliage for decorations.
There are lots of different varieties to choose from. When berries are your main consideration, buy a known quantity, as some varieties do not “berry up” reliably. Ilex aquifolium ‘Pyramidalis’ or ‘JC van Tol’ are the best bet for the classic combination of red berries and deep green prickly leaves. Both are self-fertile and have berries without a mate to cross-pollinate, and they grow into neat bushes that very slowly turn into trees.
They will not out-grow a small garden because, like all hollies, they are slow growing and cutting Christmas foliage will act like annual pruning.
For variegated foliage and regular heavy crops of berries, one of the most spectacular varieties is ‘Silver Milkmaid’ which has sharp and pointy deep green leaves, with bold cream-andspinach splashed centres, plus plentiful red berries.
For a more conventional colouring, go for ‘Pyramidalis Aureo-marginata’, very attractive with wide gold-edged leaves with green centres and lots of red berries. If you fancy yellow berries, ‘Amber’ has an egg-yolk shade set off by dark green leaves that have few or no spines.
Keen flower arrangers who want berries above all else will love ilex verticillata. This rather unusual variety makes a suckering shrub with most un-holly like leaves. They fall off in autumn, leaving bare stems with dense groups of holly berries near the ends. You can then cheat and add the berries to other types of evergreen foliage or use them with candles or whatever else you
fancy for creating festive decorations.
Hedgehog holly (ilex ferox) is famous for its prickles – the leaves are covered with them, all over the upper surface as well as round the edges. You can choose from plain green or variegated types – both are stunning.
And then of course there are blue hollies, which really do have remarkably blue foliage – brilliant for cutting as indoor decorations. You will probably need to wire on fake berries but they look good with entirely false fixtures and fittings or spray-painted fir cones. The star holly for topiary is ilex crenata which has small, neat leaves that take very well to trimming into shape.
You could almost mistake it for box, but it has a stiffer shape and lacks that unpleasant tom cat aroma that is sometimes found with the popular shrub, which is a bonus should you decide to keep a potted specimen inside.
Trained hollies in pots are rather expensive, but they are extremely slow-growing and in keeping with the spirit of the occasion – especially if they’re spruced up with decorations. You can reuse them for years in whatever is the style that season. Just move them to a slightly larger pot, treat them to fresh compost each spring and watch your investment grow. When it’s time to cash in, simply plant it out in the garden.