Plant: Christmas Jewel - Holly
Holly · Ilex 'HL10-90'
Size: 2 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
Christmas Jewel is a compact, dense, pyramidal evergreen holly with glossy dark green leaves whose spines are blunt. It is a female that sets large apple-red berries by Christmas without a pollinator, and the fruit persists into early summer. It tolerates most soils except poorly drained ones in full to partial sun, is drought tolerant once established, and works as a specimen, accent, hedge or foundation plant.
- Full Sun
- Grows to 25 ft tall and 15 ft wide
- Blooms in spring
- Hardy in USDA zones 5-9
- Evergreen foliage
- Native plant
Plant description
Christmas Jewel is a compact, dense, pyramidal evergreen holly with glossy dark green leaves whose spines are blunt. It is a female that sets large apple-red berries by Christmas without a pollinator, and the fruit persists into early summer. It tolerates most soils except poorly drained ones in full to partial sun, is drought tolerant once established, and works as a specimen, accent, hedge or foundation plant.
- Flowers
- Small white, inconspicuous spring flowers; the plant is female and sets fruit without a pollinator.
- Foliage
- Simple, glossy dark green evergreen leaves with blunt spines that do not prick when touched.
- Fruit
- Large, showy apple-red berries by Christmas that persist into early summer, formed without a pollinizer.
- Bark & stems
- Light gray, smooth bark.
- Pruning
- Best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed; usually keeps its shape without pruning.
- Native range
- Seneca, South Carolina; open-pollinated seedling of Ilex pernyi
