{"product_id":"ilex-decidua-finchs-golden","title":"Ilex decidua 'Finch's Golden'","description":"\u003cp\u003ePossumhaw is the deciduous holly of southern bottomlands, a shrub or small tree that spends the growing season looking like nothing in particular and then earns the whole year in December. The leaves drop, and what is left is a fine gray branch structure loaded with fruit that holds on bare wood through the winter. On the ordinary wild plant that fruit is red. \u003cem\u003eIlex decidua\u003c\/em\u003e 'Finch's Golden' carries bright yellow fruit instead, a selection made by Bill Finch of Mobile, Alabama, and the difference against a gray winter sky is not subtle.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe species is native to bottomlands and moister upland sites across the southeastern United States, and one practical virtue sets possumhaw apart from the better-known winterberry: this holly is far better adapted to high-pH soils than \u003cem\u003eIlex verticillata\u003c\/em\u003e, which sulks and yellows on limey ground. The name possumhaw comes from the wildlife that works the fruit over, and haw is the old word for a hedge fruit, the same haw as in hawthorn. The epithet \u003cem\u003edecidua\u003c\/em\u003e simply records the unholly-like habit of dropping every leaf.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHollies are dioecious, male and female flowers on separate plants, and this matters commercially rather than as a curiosity. Small white flowers open in spring, and only a female plant will fruit, and only then if a male is within range of the bees. 'Finch's Golden' is a female. A male \u003cem\u003eIlex decidua\u003c\/em\u003e planted nearby is the reliable answer; a male \u003cem\u003eIlex opaca\u003c\/em\u003e will usually do the job, though the bloom times are a less certain match. Anyone buying this plant for the winter fruit should plan for a pollinator rather than hope for one. The berries are mildly toxic to people and are best left to the mockingbirds, cedar waxwings and robins that strip them by late winter.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSite 'Finch's Golden' where the winter silhouette will be seen from the house, against evergreens or a dark wall that will throw the yellow fruit forward, and reckon on twelve to fifteen feet in time. The plant takes full sun to part shade and a wide range of soils, wet or dry, acid or alkaline, which is a rare tolerance in a holly and makes possumhaw useful where little else fruits well. Limb the plant up as a small multi-stemmed tree to show the pale gray bark, or leave the shrub full to the ground as a screen. Hardy through USDA zones 5 to 9.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057889120371,"sku":"ILE-DECI-FINC-GOLD-01G","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-96.jpg?v=1720138757","url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/products\/ilex-decidua-finchs-golden","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}