Nemopanthus Species, Cat Berry, Mountain Holly

This Northern Mountain-Holly or Swamp Holly is a new plant to me. I found one big beautiful rounded male specimen and an irregular growi...Read Moreng female specimen growing through a rocky lookout on Hawk Mountain that is northwest of Reading, Pennsylvania about 25 miles. It is a wonderful park to visit and see very scenic big views with many raptors flying by. Dr. Michael Dirr wrote in his landscape manual that he has seen it commonly growing throughout Maine, often with Winterberry Holly in fens, bogs, and swamps, and it also grows on mountain upland areas. It can get a good yellow fall color or just greenish-yellow. The leaves are 1 to 3 inches long. The female plant bears small red berries in late summer and fall. Native from Nova Scotia into Ontario to Wisconsin down to Virginia. So far, only rarely sold by any nurseries. It looks like a lovely shrub with good foliage and stems and bears red holly-like fruit in late summer. Polygamo-dioecious meaning that plants are mostly either male or female like many other members of the Holly Family.

I love this bush: the berries are Christmas-card-perfect: perfectly round and bright red. I don't grow it; it grows wild on my property 1...Read More 1/2 hours north of Montreal in zone 4a. Remember, you need male and female bushes to be able to have those perfect berries!

This is a common shrub throughout open areas of Newfoundland, growing from upland barrens, bog edges, old burn-overs, cutovers and open f...Read Moreorest. It can tolerate wet soil. Like all hollies, they are dioecious, so if you want fruit, you must plant both sexes. The spring foliage is bronzy-green, summer foliage grey-green and the fall colour is yellow. The matt orange-red fruit are quite attractive. It is a coarse shrub for the formal garden but useful in a wildflower setting.