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SHOWY AND COLORFUL: Native winterberry has brilliant red berries on females of the species. Winterberry is hardiest holly Though we all know the spiny promising selection, known for evergreen of our American now as "No. 2," that boasts glossy holly, few could identify our native STRESS-PROOF dark green and good winterberry holly, Ilex verticillata, production. in leaf or bud, because it loses its By Brian Maynard Winterberry roots readily from foliage in the autumn. Yet, along cuttings taken almost any time of many New England back roads are foraging birds, berries can be found year, treated with low-moderate found splashes of brilliant red into January. Winterberry leaves strength rooting hormone and produced by the profusion of red are unremarkable — it is the fruit stuck in a peat-perlite mix for six berries on females of this species, that makes this a must in any to eight weeks. For best rooting, which is common to moist winter landscape, strip the fruit when making woodlands and swamps in the cuttings. northeast. Winterberry is virtually free of come in either female or pest and disease problems and Winterberry holly is the hardiest male plants, and both are required of ail hollies, growing into USDA thrives in moist areas with up to for good fruiting. Our woods are so zone 3 (-30 to -40 degrees winter several inches of water. However, full of male winterberry that minimum). Evergreen hollies are it also tolerates hot, dry conditions planting a male pollinator may be seldom found north of zone 6 (0 to and a range of soils. unnecessary; but just in case, leave -10 degrees) because their The selection of winterberry room for one male plant within 100 evergreen foliage suffers from cultiyars has centered upon its feet of your valued female winter's frigid winds. fruit. The best-known introduction, specimens. A multi-stemmed reaching "Sparkleberry" sports a wealth of The common 10 to 12 feet tall by 10 feet wide, glossy red, medium-sized Jberries. "Sparkleberry" yields the best fruit winterberry is suitable for shrub "Nana" and "Red Sprite" are when "Apollo," a male, is planted borders, massing and stream bank compact selections that grow to nearby. naturalization. Brilliant red berries only 3 or 4 feet in height. "Chrysocarpa" is a yellow-fruited Brian Maynard is an assistant up to y^ inch across are borne close professor of plant sciences at the to the stem, ripening in September form. University of Rhode Island. This and reaching their greatest show University of Rhode Island series on stress-tolerant trees and after the leaves drop in October. researchers are working with a is a project of the Rhode Depending on the appetites of . ^l^wport nursery to evaluate a Island Nurserymen's Association.

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