Woodlanders Botanicals • Design Field Guide
History, design logic, and the Woodlanders legacy—how to choose the right holly, and how to make it speak in the landscape.
Hollies are not seasonal ornaments. They are structure. They are shadow. They are punctuation marks in winter—inked into the garden when everything else steps aside.
A Poetic Preamble: The Dark Geometry of Winter
There are plants that announce themselves in spring, and plants that hold their tongues until winter. Hollies belong to the latter class. When the garden is stripped to bone and branch, hollies remain—ink-dark leaves, polished berries, a geometry that feels at once ancient and defiant. They are plants of endurance and intention, plants that do not ask for attention but reward it deeply.
To walk among hollies in winter is to understand structure. Light catches on leaf margins, berries punctuate space like deliberate punctuation, and evergreen forms hold the garden together when everything else has stepped aside. Hollies are not ornamental in the fleeting sense; they are architectural. They teach restraint, patience, and the long view.
Woodlanders note
For more than 45 years, Woodlanders has lived with hollies—grown them, trialed them, argued over them, discarded some and quietly championed others. This is not a catalog. It’s a story: of place, selection, evolution, and how a genus once relegated to hedges and holiday décor became a serious design tool.
A Brief History of Hollies
The genus Ilex is vast and globally distributed—an old lineage spanning temperate and subtropical regions. In North America, hollies were never merely ornamental. Native species carried practical and cultural weight, from ecological function to ethnobotanical use. Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria), in particular, holds a deep place in the story of the Southeast—an evergreen with caffeine in its leaves, woven into ritual and community.
European settlers arrived with their own holly mythology—most notably Ilex aquifolium—and the hedge-centered traditions of formal landscapes. But North American heat, humidity, and weather extremes favored different plants: Ilex opaca (American holly), Ilex glabra (inkberry), Ilex cassine (dahoon), Ilex decidua (possumhaw), and Ilex verticillata (winterberry) rose as regionally appropriate structure-makers.
By the late 20th century, breeders and nurseries began expanding the holly palette: tighter habits, improved cold hardiness, novel foliage color, unusual fruit, and forms that broke free from the sheared hedge. That expansion wasn’t just horticultural—it mirrored a shift in design culture toward expressive structure, ecological intelligence, and landscapes that read as narratives rather than maintenance schedules.
The Holly Renaissance (and the Hedge Problem)
Hollies have suffered from a particular kind of success: overuse without imagination. Too often they were clipped into submission, selected only for berries, and deployed as “green wallpaper.” In many Southern landscapes, the default was the evergreen hedge—tight, repetitive, and visually polite. The result was predictable: hollies became a cliché.
A boundary-pushing idea
If a holly only exists as a hedge, you never meet the plant. You meet the maintenance plan. The modern opportunity is to restore hollies to their natural habits—upright, weeping, loose, layered, wild—and use them as deliberate structure.
What Woodlanders has observed over decades is simple: when hollies are chosen for their character and sited honestly, they become expressive—even radical. Weeping yaupons that read like calligraphy. Dune-adapted cassines that look born of wind. Deciduous species that ignite winter with fruit suspended in air. The renaissance isn’t about novelty; it’s about discernment.
How to Choose the Right Holly
A good holly choice begins with design intent and ends with ecological fit. If either is missing, the plant will feel “wrong,” even if it survives. Use this framework as your decision spine.
1) Evergreen vs. deciduous
- Evergreen hollies provide year-round weight, shadow, and structure.
- Deciduous hollies provide seasonal drama—especially winter fruit—without visual heaviness in summer.
2) Scale and habit
Hollies range from ground-hugging shrubs to towering trees. Upright forms act as punctuation; weeping forms soften and humanize; broad shrubs anchor space. Decide whether the holly is a backbone element, an accent, or a counterpoint.
3) Site truth: moisture, wind, exposure
Many hollies are specialists—swamp dwellers, coastal survivors, upland edge plants. Matching holly to site is not optional. A well-sited holly looks effortless; a poorly sited one looks like a compromise.
4) Sex and fruit (without letting berries boss you around)
Fruit generally requires a compatible male pollinator near female plants (with timing that overlaps). If berries are part of the design, plan for them. But don’t let fruit be the only criterion—structure and habit are the year-round return on investment.
5) Narrative intent
Ask what the holly is saying. Is it a formal marker? A wild edge? A winter climax? A quiet continuity? The best landscapes use hollies as characters, not filler.
A Designer’s Framework: Hollies by Role
Think of hollies as a design vocabulary. Below are “roles” that help you choose deliberately—especially if you’re trying to push beyond traditional hedge-and-foundation planting.
1) The Backbone
Large evergreens and strong forms that hold the entire composition: Ilex opaca selections, robust Ilex myrtifolia, and durable regional species.
2) The Punctuation
Upright, narrow, or distinctly shaped plants used like commas and exclamation points: Ilex crenata ‘Sky Pencil’, select columnar forms, and controlled hybrids.
3) The Softener
Weeping and loose habits that make architecture feel alive: weeping yaupons like ‘Folsom’s Weeping’, plus naturally layered shrubs allowed to grow honestly.
4) The Winter Climax
Deciduous hollies and winterberries that stage winter as a main season: Ilex decidua and Ilex verticillata cultivars and their pollinators.
5) The Ecological Specialist
Plants that belong to specific conditions—wet, coastal, sandy, or shaded—and look best when the site matches their nature: Ilex cassine, Ilex coriacea, and others.
The most compelling landscapes do not use many hollies—they use the right hollies, placed like decisions.
Making Your Holly Selection Tell a Story
A holly can be a sentence, a paragraph, or an entire chapter. Designing with hollies is less about quantity and more about sequencing—how one form leads to another, how texture changes, how winter is staged, and how restraint makes boldness feel earned.
Three narrative strategies
- Structure → softness → winter flame. Start with evergreen backbone (Ilex opaca or Ilex myrtifolia), introduce a weeping or loose form (yaupon), then finish with deciduous fruit as the winter climax (Ilex decidua or Ilex verticillata).
- Modern restraint. Use narrow punctuation plants (e.g., ‘Sky Pencil’) sparingly, paired with textural natives like inkberry and American holly. The contrast reads contemporary without becoming sterile.
- Site-as-plot. Let ecology drive the story: dahoon where soil stays moist, winterberry where winter light can backlight fruit, inkberry where humidity and shade demand durability. The garden reads “inevitable,” not “installed.”
If you want to push boundaries…
Stop treating hollies as background. Give one a lead role. Let a weeping yaupon be sculpture. Let a winterberry be the winter centerpiece. Let an American holly become a tree, not a trimmed object. The boldness comes from letting the plant be itself—then composing around that truth.
The Woodlanders Holly Archive (Since the Early 2000s)
What follows is a living archive: hollies Woodlanders has offered since the early 2000s. Rather than presenting these as a flat list, we group them by design function and character—because that is how you actually use hollies in a landscape.
Woodlanders field notes (editorial highlights)
- American holly as architecture: when allowed to become a tree, Ilex opaca shifts a garden’s gravity—less “foundation plant,” more “woodland cathedral.”
- Inkberry as modern native: Ilex glabra can read crisp and contemporary when massed in honest, unboxed forms—especially where boxwood struggles.
- Yaupon as sculpture: weeping forms don’t just soften edges—they create atmosphere. One plant can change the emotional temperature of a space.
- Deciduous hollies as winter design: a winterberry grove is not “seasonal interest”—it’s a winter event.
Evergreen backbone & structure
These are the plants that hold the design together—year-round mass, shadow, and the ability to look intentional even in January.
- Ilex opaca ‘Dan Fenton’
- Ilex opaca ‘William Hawkins’
- Ilex opaca (‘Lake City’?)
- Ilex opaca ‘Miss Liberty’
- Ilex opaca ‘Greenleaf’
- Ilex opaca ‘Fallaw’
- Ilex opaca (male) ‘Jersey Knight’
- Ilex opaca (female) ‘Selected Red’
- Ilex opaca (male)
- Ilex myrtifolia
- Ilex myrtifolia (compact female)
- Ilex myrtifolia ‘Weeping Male’
- Ilex myrtifolia (yellow-berried)
- Ilex myrtifolia ‘Purple Myrtle’
- Ilex coriacea
- Ilex integra
- Ilex latifolia ‘Alva’
- Ilex macrocarpa
- Ilex goshiensis
- Ilex chinensis (purpurea)
- Ilex wilsoni
- Ilex laevigata
- Ilex ambigua
- Ilex curtissii
- Ilex longipes
- Ilex spinigera (female)
- Ilex pedunculosa (male)
- Ilex pedunculosa (female)
- Ilex mutchagara
Inkberries & low evergreen masses
Native, resilient, and surprisingly elegant when used as honest masses instead of tight green cubes.
- Ilex glabra
- Ilex glabra (male)
- Ilex glabra ‘Compacta’ (female)
- Ilex glabra ‘Shamrock’ (female)
- Ilex glabra ‘Densa’ (female)
- Ilex glabra ‘Nigra’
- Ilex glabra ‘Leucocarpa’
Punctuation & precision forms
Use sparingly. These are tools for line, repetition, and visual “grammar”—best when contrasted with wilder natives.
- Ilex crenata ‘Nakada’
- Ilex crenata ‘Sky Pencil’ (female)
Yaupon hollies: character, sculpture, atmosphere
If you want one holly to change the emotional temperature of a garden, start here.
- Ilex vomitoria ‘Nana’ (unknown sex)
- Ilex vomitoria ‘Lowrey’s Big Leaf’
- Ilex vomitoria ‘Yawkey’
- Ilex vomitoria (male)
- Ilex vomitoria (female) ‘Virginia Dare’
- Ilex vomitoria ‘Dewerth’ (male)
- Ilex vomitoria (male) ‘Will Fleming’
- Ilex vomitoria ‘Folsom’s Weeping’
- Ilex vomitoria (female) ‘Gold Top’
- Ilex vomitoria ‘Hoskins Shadow’
Dahoon, cassine forms & ecological specialists
Hollies that feel inevitable when the site is right—especially in the Southeast, near water, in humidity, and in coastal conditions.
- Ilex cassine (female)
- Ilex cassine (male)
- Ilex cassine forma aureo-bractea
- Ilex cassine ‘Lowei’ (female)
- Ilex cassine var. angustifolia (female)
- Ilex cumulicola × cassine ‘580 Lady’ (female)
Deciduous hollies: winter as the main season
The plants that make winter legible—color suspended in air, especially when backlit and paired with grasses, seedheads, and pale bark.
- Ilex decidua ‘Warrens Red’
- Ilex decidua ‘Finch’s Golden’
- Ilex decidua (male)
- Ilex verticillata ‘Winter Gold’
- Ilex verticillata ‘Winter Red’ (female)
- Ilex verticillata ‘Southern Gentleman’
- Ilex verticillata ‘Red Sprite’
- Ilex verticillata × serrata ‘Raritan Chief’
- Ilex verticillata ‘Maryland Beauty’
- Ilex verticillata × serrata ‘Sparkleberry’
- Ilex verticillata ‘Jim Dandy’
- Ilex serrata × verticellata ‘Apollo’
Hybrids, crosses & cultivated departures
Where breeding and selection produce new silhouettes, foliage tones, and landscape behaviors—useful when you want tradition with a twist.
- Ilex sp. ‘Cherry Bomb’
- Ilex × “Bronze Beauty”
- Ilex sp. (98FAB18)
- Ilex myrtifolia × opaca ‘Sand Pond’
- Ilex cornuta × aquifolium ‘Edward J. Stevens’
- Ilex × koehneana (Ilex latifolia × I. aquifolium) ‘Hohman’
- Ilex cornuta ‘D’Or’
- Ilex × attenuata ‘Alagold’
Sexed stock & collector notes
Where the record includes explicitly male and female offerings—valuable for fruit planning and breeding continuity.
- Ilex buergeri (male)
- Ilex buergeri (female)
- Ilex amelanchier (male)
- Ilex amelanchier (female)
Closing: Designing with Conviction
Hollies reward seriousness. They are not filler plants. They ask you to consider winter, time, and structure. When used with intention, they dissolve the boundary between traditional and contemporary design.
To plant a holly is to take a position: about patience, permanence, and the value of restraint. At Woodlanders, hollies have never been just inventory. They are witnesses—to changing tastes, climates, and ideas of beauty.
The future of hollies in North American landscapes isn’t louder or flashier. It’s quieter, sharper, more deliberate. And in that restraint, hollies remain unsurpassed.
About Woodlanders: Based in Aiken, South Carolina, Woodlanders has offered distinctive plants for over 45 years—serving gardeners, designers, campuses, arboretums, and botanical gardens across the U.S.
Do I need both a male and female holly for berries?
Often, yes—many hollies are dioecious (male and female flowers on separate plants). If berries are essential to your design, plan for a compatible male nearby and consider bloom timing. But don’t let berries be the only reason you choose a holly—habit and structure matter all year.
How do I make hollies look modern (not “hedgy”)?
Use fewer plants with clearer roles. Let backbone hollies grow into honest forms. Use narrow punctuation forms sparingly. Introduce one weeping or loose character plant, and stage winter with deciduous hollies where the fruit can be backlit. The modern look comes from composition, not clipping.
