Gordonsville, VA (Zone 7a) | January 2023 | positive
I planted a couple of these about eight years ago in a treeline under maples and cedars with only hot afternoon sun, and they look good d...Read Moreespite my complete neglect. They don't grow quickly or develop the classic conical shape in those conditions, but they've still manged to reach 4 feet in height and keep a compact habit. The leaves are more prickly than most hollies, and I know from experience they can poke through fleece-lined jeans. Deer won't touch them, unlike Blue Princess hollies. I added them as an early-spring nectar source for honey bees. For that purpose, I'd say they're alright but not quite as good as Nellie Stevens or Blue Princess.
This is an evergreen holly that
1) develops a dense habit and an upright formal conical shape with minimal pruning,
2) be...Read Morears heavy crops of showy red fruit in winter annually, and
3) has glossy leaves that hold their deep green color through the winter.
Attracts birds and pollinators. Also awards---in 2010, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society gave it its prestigious Gold Medal Plant Award.
It is a female, and needs a male blue holly (I. x meservae) as a pollen source for fruiting. (In a suburban landscape, it's likely there's one close enough for adequate pollination.)
The original plant was dense and 7' tall by 4' wide at the base at age ten years, with no pruning. (It likely will eventually attain at least twice that size.) Blue hollies require regular and extensive pruning if you want a conical shape.
Like most hollies, it does best in moist, well-drained acid soil.
This has proved hardy in Z5.
Bred by Dr. Elwin Orton of Rutgers University, it's a cross between a blue holly (I. x meservae) and I. pernyi. The leaves have sharp marginal prickles that demand heavy gloves for maintenance operations---the points of blue holly leaves are harmless---but render this plant much less attractive to deer, or so it is said.
Ilex x 'Rutzan' is the cultivar name. "Red Beauty" is a proprietary trade name.
I planted a couple of these about eight years ago in a treeline under maples and cedars with only hot afternoon sun, and they look good d...Read More
This is an evergreen holly that
1) develops a dense habit and an upright formal conical shape with minimal pruning,
2) be...Read More