I love hollies. I have American(here when I moved here), nellie stevens (planted last spring), china boy/girl/(here when I moved here), and blue prince/princess (planted this spring). Hey you should sign up for chipdrop and get free wood chips delivered to your driveway for free. Then use a bedding fork to put it in a yard cart or wheelbarrow to put mulch around all your shrubs and trees. Easier to take care of, holds moisture, insulates soil from sun and winter temps.
I avoid mulch because i have problems with fungus... a condition specific to my yard... long story, but basically i cut down 20 trees and left the roots and stumps to rot.... i'm slowly converting the areas around my trees to rock mulch, which is very time consuming!
@@moseseisley557 you will probably end up regretting the rock mulch. Weed seeds get blown in, leaves debris break down into bits of soil, the weeds germinate, and then you gotta pull all the rocks back out because it's impossible to take care of. Rocks are expensive too!! People pay money to have rocks installed, then they have to pay money to have the rocks removed. Hopefully that doesn't happen to you, I'll cross my fingers for you, but I've never seen it work out well for more than a year or two tops.
I have difficulty with pruning China Boy/China Girl holly. They come from the nursery kind of randomly shaped like a small bush, and over time they just stay that way. Growth just comes from all directions and I've never seen them attempt to grow vertical. I saw some at the arboretum near me, and theirs was the same. All of mine have multiple trunks that radiate out from the base in various angles, but I don't see any vertical. I have a female Blue girl or blue princess and it is about the same. More fan shaped or vase shaped and never any vertical growth.
I used Inkblot Hollys to screen in around my A/C unit three years ago but they never filled in. You can see right through them. I'm wondering if its the amount of sunlight they are receiving that is effecting them.
Yeah, I have also seen that on some specimens, so their utility as screening hedges might not be that good. I'm growing mine as infill in a mixed privacy screen with lots of other species, so i just need a mass of green leaves year round, and i'm growing for height. Different use case from yours.
Nice Ilex collection, thanks for sharing!
I love hollies. I have American(here when I moved here), nellie stevens (planted last spring), china boy/girl/(here when I moved here), and blue prince/princess (planted this spring). Hey you should sign up for chipdrop and get free wood chips delivered to your driveway for free. Then use a bedding fork to put it in a yard cart or wheelbarrow to put mulch around all your shrubs and trees. Easier to take care of, holds moisture, insulates soil from sun and winter temps.
I avoid mulch because i have problems with fungus... a condition specific to my yard... long story, but basically i cut down 20 trees and left the roots and stumps to rot.... i'm slowly converting the areas around my trees to rock mulch, which is very time consuming!
@@moseseisley557 you will probably end up regretting the rock mulch. Weed seeds get blown in, leaves debris break down into bits of soil, the weeds germinate, and then you gotta pull all the rocks back out because it's impossible to take care of. Rocks are expensive too!! People pay money to have rocks installed, then they have to pay money to have the rocks removed. Hopefully that doesn't happen to you, I'll cross my fingers for you, but I've never seen it work out well for more than a year or two tops.
@@missjenniferd1 Your points are all correct, but with my fungus situation there's no other choice.
I have difficulty with pruning China Boy/China Girl holly. They come from the nursery kind of randomly shaped like a small bush, and over time they just stay that way. Growth just comes from all directions and I've never seen them attempt to grow vertical. I saw some at the arboretum near me, and theirs was the same. All of mine have multiple trunks that radiate out from the base in various angles, but I don't see any vertical. I have a female Blue girl or blue princess and it is about the same. More fan shaped or vase shaped and never any vertical growth.
That must be due to the ilex rugosa lineage... I think rugosa is a low-growing holly that never really goes vertical.
I used Inkblot Hollys to screen in around my A/C unit three years ago but they never filled in. You can see right through them. I'm wondering if its the amount of sunlight they are receiving that is effecting them.
Yeah, I have also seen that on some specimens, so their utility as screening hedges might not be that good. I'm growing mine as infill in a mixed privacy screen with lots of other species, so i just need a mass of green leaves year round, and i'm growing for height. Different use case from yours.