Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: My Winterberries are lime green, not dark green. Help!, 1 by GardengloriesJA

GardengloriesJA wrote:
Hi! I planted a row of wintergreen hollies along my walk last year. They seem to be doing well and have bloomed and are now setting fruit. But we are landscaping and picking color combo and I was counting on the winterberries to be dark green to contrast against the house and eventually the lawn when looking out the front windows.

Instead they are light green-spring green or lime green. If they stay this way I have to reorganize our entire color planting because right now they are just disappearing into the landscape-no color contrast. They are planted in an area that gets full sun for about 8 hours or more a day. What can I do to get them to darken up?

Also, how do I get them to fill out like the ones you see at the nursery or in pictures on line? Is there a product that stimulates leaf/branch production or do I need to use pruning only?

Please excuse the state of our yard and house. We are doing all this ourselves so we are in the "construction" stage. The house will be repainted either a light brown to match the roof, a darker green, or grey eventually with stone facing in the alcove.
Thanks