Last winter, the Eastern Seaboard experienced some old-fashioned weather for the first time in 6 years.
The thermometer outside the kitchen window of our southern Connecticut home ranged well below zero on several occasions during January and February, and the ground froze solid in mid-December and stayed that way until March.
We chose last winter to test the hardiness of several species of the holly family!
Unappreciated Evergreen Hollies
Evergreen hollies are an unappreciated plant group. They are not widely grown in Northern gardens even though they have qualities unmatched by other broad-leaved evergreens.
No holly has conspicuous flowers, but the prominent red berries of the American, English and Chinese varieties partially make up for this. These hollies look fresh and crisp when rhododendron leaves are tightly curled and drooping on cold winter days.
American Holly
American holly is native to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, south along the Atlantic Seaboard and west into Texas. Yet, it is rarely seen in gardens north of New Jersey and west of Pennsylvania.
English holly is more restricted in its use, but its many attractive forms deserve a much broader trial. American and English holly may reach a considerable height and are best used as specimens or large accents in shrub borders.
Chinese And Japanese Hollies
The Chinese and Japanese hollies offer excellent qualities for foundation plantings and as small accents in the garden.
Flex cornuta (Chinese holly) is one of the few broad-leaved evergreens that will stand in full sun during summer and winter. And Ilex crenata (Japanese holly) makes an excellent substitute for boxwood in colder areas.
We have had all of these hollies except Ilex aquifolium (English holly) growing in our garden for three or more years.
The largest of our American hollies grew as much as 4’ feet in as many years. The others have grown more slowly but are also healthy.
Their only cold damage was from the last fall a year ago. Hollies typically have two periods of growth—one in spring and another in late summer. The year before last, we had an arid summer which delayed the second growth period by several weeks.
A sudden early frost caught and killed much of the new growth before it had hardened, but all the plants recovered the following year.
44659 by Na