Hate sprouts? Growing your own may change your mind They’re still the be

HOLLY was once the green symbol of hope during our midwinter celebrations, long before Albert’s

Christmas tree crashed upon the scene.

So it’s inevitably steeped in ancient superstition, with its spiky branches preventing evil fairies skipping along the hearth.

But there’s much more to holly, Ilex aquifolium, than that. Even its name shows how “deep-rooted” it is in our culture. Our Scots word for holly is the Anglo-Saxon hollen, and the fishing village Cullen, along with its inimitable dish Cullen skink, is derived from the Gaelic for holly, cuileann.

With more than 400 species in the genus, many varieties have been developed, including the 30 currently listed by the Royal Horticultural Society. Breeders have splashed or edged leaves with yellow or white. I aquifolium Ferox has extra spiny leaves, with those on I aquifolium Pyramidalis more appealingly smooth.

Many hollies are dioecious, but others, including I aquifolium JC van Tol, have both male and female flowers, so berries are guaranteed. And if you’re going for two hollies make sure they’re not both male, like Golden Queen, or female Handsworth New Silver.

Red and yellow are the usual berry colours. But, writing a little over a century ago, the prolific Dumfriesshire writer Herbert Maxwell reported that John Evelyn had mentioned a white-berried variety. And the 18th-century Scots botanist John Loudon claimed a black one. Nonetheless Maxwell reckoned both writers had been “misled by hearsay”.

It’s hard to believe how widespread holly once was all over Scotland. Near Gordon Castle in Moray, Maxwell identified a grove with 500 trees described as “large” 150 years earlier.

And equally astonishing is how large they often became. At the start of last century, Maxwell had seen large hollies at Fullarton House by Troon, claiming one specimen had a circumference of 189ft.

Holly grows well in all but the wettest soils. It regenerates in shade, so was prevalent in forested areas, though not as a timber crop. But it is good for hedging. Evergreen holly made the perfect boundary marker and its near impenetrable tangle of prickles kept your stock on the right land.

In the late 17th century, Evelyn had holly hedging at Sayes Court, near Deptford in south-east London. Until, that is, he leased his estate to the Russian czar, Peter the Great. During his brief visit, his court trashed the property.