Plant: Winter Red - Holly
Holly · Ilex verticillata 'Winter Red'
Size: 3 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
Winter Red is a female cultivar of winterberry holly noteworthy for its vivid red fruits, which colour in fall and hold on the bare stems all winter. It is a deciduous, erect, multi stemmed shrub about 6 to 8 feet tall and wide with dark green toothed leaves and small white summer flowers. It adapts well to moist, acidic soils and tolerates low lying wet ground, and it fruits abundantly when paired with a male pollinizer such as 'Southern Gentleman'. Birds eat the fruits, and the plant suits rain gardens, pond edges, naturalised areas and winter interest hedges.
- Full Sun
- Grows to 8 ft tall and 8 ft wide
- Blooms in summer
- Hardy in USDA zones 3-9
- Deciduous foliage
- Native plant
Plant description
Winter Red is a female cultivar of winterberry holly noteworthy for its vivid red fruits, which colour in fall and hold on the bare stems all winter. It is a deciduous, erect, multi stemmed shrub about 6 to 8 feet tall and wide with dark green toothed leaves and small white summer flowers. It adapts well to moist, acidic soils and tolerates low lying wet ground, and it fruits abundantly when paired with a male pollinizer such as 'Southern Gentleman'. Birds eat the fruits, and the plant suits rain gardens, pond edges, naturalised areas and winter interest hedges.
- Flowers
- Small insignificant white flowers appear in June and July in the axils of branches on new growth.
- Foliage
- Dark green leaves are elliptical to lanceolate with toothed margins and pointed tips, 2 to 3 inches long and 1 to 2 inches wide.
- Fruit
- Fruits turn bright red in fall and persist throughout winter.
