Ilex myrtifolia x opaca 'Sand Pond'

Ilex 'Sand Pond' is a Woodlanders introduction with a good story and better berries, a natural hybrid between two southeastern native hollies: the stately American holly, Ilex opaca, and the fine-textured myrtle-leaf holly, Ilex myrtifolia. The cross carries small, narrow, glossy evergreen leaves midway between the parents, on a plant that colors up each fall with an unusually heavy set of large red berries.

The plant came out of the wild. We found and propagated 'Sand Pond' from a single tree growing in Screven County, Georgia, in a spot where both parent species happened to grow close enough to cross on their own. Spontaneous hybrids like this one turn up now and then where two hollies overlap, and now and then one proves worth naming; this seedling, with the narrow evergreen leaves and generous fruit, was clearly one of those.

In leaf and effect 'Sand Pond' recalls the popular 'Foster' holly, itself a hybrid of Ilex opaca with the dahoon, Ilex cassine, and shares that neat, small-leaved, upright look that has made Foster hollies a landscape staple. The difference is in the fruit: 'Sand Pond' sets the red berries thickly and large, a bright winter show, and we expect the plant to build into a small to medium evergreen tree that may yet become far more widely grown.

For a Southern garden 'Sand Pond' offers the best of the pyramidal evergreen hollies in a slightly smaller, distinctly heavy-fruiting package: a specimen, a tall screen, a corner anchor, or a wildlife planting where birds work the winter berries. Give the tree full sun to part shade and moist, well-drained soil, and set a male holly within range to insure the crop. A cut branch of the berried evergreen foliage is a natural for the holidays.