My Big American Holly

Hello All,

My husband said this American Holly started life as a seed dropped from a bird flying over the property, in 1984. Our friend stands by it for reference - he is 6' tall. We figure that the tree is around 35' tall, and about 15' across the circumference.
It has weathered direct, intimate competition from a Peach Tree (came alive from a pit), the Derecheo storm (which took out the HUGE Blue Spruce 20 feet away), and in the 4 years I've been on the property, I've watered it, and thrown Hollytone around the drip line occasionally. No pruning.
So, it's grown with other trees, and now is keeping company with an "on-it's-way-out" Native Dogwood, but other than this, it stands alone. And is dark green, full of berries, and growing like the Dickens!

very nice!

It's so full; it obviously really likes that nice sunny spot !

Gracye:

That's a perfectly nice handsome holly - especially to have grown out from seed. Show us some closeups of the foliage and fruit, before you are covered up in the snow that's coming.

Another retrospective - sorry for dredging up all the old memories...

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/688664/

I love the bark on the trunks of the Hollies....gorgeous! I just planted 3 Nellie Stevens hollies last season and I am excited for them to get big.

Thanks, it's huge...closeups would be great too!

I'll get some close-ups of it. It's not nearly as tall as the ones you gave me the link to, VV - oh now, they are so GRAND! What other tree gives so much all year long?

Mine is still just a pup, and this is what is amazing to me, how it has grown. And, it has weathered so much change around it! It's so thick near the ground that I can't really get anywhere near the trunk, and the upper part has exploded in four years. Maybe that blue spruce that left it's side has opened up better conditions for it?

Give me a holly any day, well, unless someone happens to have an ancient Catalpa tree...just could not resist this comment, you all know.


And, VV, THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES, as that song goes.

John, have you been spending your time reminiscing? What's that all about? Do you miss the days of yore when debate was tough and...what's the opposite of fawning? You know you do. :)

I wish my little volunteer American hollies stood a chance of looking like Gracye's or the ones in VV's photos someday.The birds didn't pick terrific places to deposit the seeds!

VV, surely you've done a musical production starring viburnums??

Hey Muddy, don't get him talking about Viburnums when we have sufficiently gotten himon rack with hollies. hahahaha

In addition to my American Holly, I've planted four Nellie Stevens Hollies (REALLY needed a wind break from off the mountain), and six "Castle" series hollies. As my 1950's cottage was bare of plantings of any sort, and quite symmetrical, I had a real challenge (in those days there was no landscaping and the house was just plunked down on whatever ground without benefit of moving dirt around and building an area for foundation planting).


Those Castle hollies (Castle Wall, Castle Spire) are a bit particular, and I was impatient with their growth, so I removed one of the females and both males, leaving one lone female - really disturbing the symmetry of the planting. But nothing else would do, really - right size, right look, right kind of plant. I basically demanded that Hubby find a new home for them. Well, he chucked those $$$ hollies into some happenstance places on our property and doggone it, they are now reviving, looking beautiful, and I hope that you understand my grief in doing this! They could be living where I originally put them, had I had the patience...


I say this because, after searching for replacements, I turned back to this variety, bought three, and just toughed it up. They coughed and sputtered the first year, looking pretty puny, but this Winter (their first with me), they are more than holding their own...so this is their growth pattern! I have berries, and the one male at the corner did produce so much pollen the first season... I did take the opportunity when I removed the original ones to add alot more dirt to the foundation area...the original female is WAY out of danger at this point-she is very happy. These are blue hollies, and oh how I love that color.

I do have a couple of rounded, tiny-leaved Japanese hollies on either side of my front steps. They aren't at all show-stoppers, but they are doing their job, without complaints. They are shading the feet of the Castle hollies.

So give me a holly, any type, basically, but the native is what I grew up with, and have learned to appreciate. As far as the weird contortions I went through with planting?
The First Year, It Sleeps
The Second Year, it Creeps
The Third Year, It Leaps

Truer words were never spoken.

Oops! I tried to hijack your thread, didn't I? My bad... : )

Ah Muddy1-as long as you wax poetic about hollies, I think that you are JUST FINE!
Here are the close-ups. Please excuse the yellowish color, the sun was very strong this morning and the holly is much more green.
VV-we went to Manassas today and I saw some VERY LARGE hollies, honestly - a good twice the size of mine! Naturally I thought of you...probably need to knock on some doors if you're ever in the area.