Plant: Berry Heavy® Winterberry Holly

Plant description

Berry Heavy is a female winterberry holly selection grown for the exceptional crop of bright red berries that lines its bare stems after the dark green leaves drop in fall. It makes an upright deciduous shrub 6 to 8 feet tall and wide, hardy from zone 3 to 9, and it wants close to full sun and a wet or consistently moist site such as a rain garden, bioswale or pond edge. A male winterberry such as Mr. Poppins must be planted within 50 feet for berries to set. Avoid pruning it except to cut branches for arrangements, and use it in mixed borders, informal screens and cut stem production.

Flowers

Small white flowers in late spring, borne in the leaf axils; a male winterberry such as Mr. Poppins must be planted within 50 feet for the female to set berries.

Foliage

Deciduous, simple, smooth, acuminate, cuneate, obovate to oblong-ovate leaves 1.5 to 4 inches long with doubly serrate margins.

Fruit

A heavy crop of bright red berries that colours in fall and persists into early winter before fading by late winter.

Bark & stems

Olive-brown to purplish-brown lenticelled stems; grey to blackish bark with knobby lenticels.

Pruning

Avoid pruning winterberry hollies except to remove whole branches for arrangements; regular pruning reduces flowering and fruit production.

Native range

Eastern North America

Plant details