Holly trees
Why do gardeners wait until Christmas before giving hollies a thought? They’re among the most tolerant and accommodating of trees.
Hollies have everything going for them. They’ve steely-grey trunks, others have purple stems. Some are laden with berries, in vivid red or yellow or ivory. They’ve lustrous leaves that retain their handsome gloss all year. Their foliage can be neatly margined in cream or splashed randomly in bright yellow. In some varieties the whole tree is lit up by a golden or milky glow on the leaf surface.
For those of us who prefer our leaves plain, there’s a whole gamut of green. Some are desirable for their petrol blue colouring, dense and dark with a mysterious air. Ilex meserveae ‘Blue Angel’ is recommended frequently by holly addicts. ‘Blue Prince’ and ‘Blue Princess’ are similar. If you want berries, too, choose the la er, but make sure there’s a male around.
For most gardeners the incentive for growing hollies is for their berries. A beautiful female tree adorned with clusters of red berries is hard to beat in the winter garden. But it takes two. Most hollies are unisexual; the flowers of each tree are single sex, so pollen must be carried from the male tree to the female, usually by insects, to produce fruit.
If you’ve only room for one, perhaps Ilex aquifolium ‘Pyramidalis’ is the one to go for. It belongs to the heterophylla group, which means its leaves are of more than one kind; some are spiny, others have smoother edges. It’s self-fertile and reliably produces a heavy crop of berries. As its name suggests, it makes a good conical shape. It becomes broader in maturity, just like me!
In pagan myth, the year was ruled by two kings. The Oak King, at the height of his power at midsummer, was constantly ba ling with the Holly King, who ruled the winter and whose power only started to decline after the winter solstice as the hours of daylight gradually grew longer. We may have turned the corner, but he’s still very much in control!