Page 14 - Free State Spring 2022 - June FINAL

TOTAL PLANT MANAGEMENT A Stanton Gill

Ilex in the Nursery –

Fits in an IPM Approach

Commercial Ornamental vigor. This plant is dioicous (two • Flowers are fragrant but generally
Horticulture Program houses), so you have female and male inconspicuous. Pollinated flowers
plants. The berries are large and borne give way to berry-like red drupes
Nursery owners are always looking
on one-year-old wood. The leaves are (1/3” diameter) which ripen in fall and
for plant material that grows quickly
large and dark green. There are female persist into winter.
and sells into the planting screening
plants which need a male pollinator
market. Everyone that buys a new Female Hollies
to set fruit. Males are more vigorous
house wants to make a barrier
and serve well as border plants that ‘Lassie’ is a female holly that never fails
planting that screens out their
blocks out views. Bill Kuhl showed me to set fruit if a pollinator is nearby. It
neighbors. Many Leyland cypress,
two-year male plants that were 3 – 4 ft seems to be the earliest in its family
Thuja ‘Green Giants’ and “Emerald
tall. He commented that males grow to set fruit, even fruiting the first year.
Green ‘ Arborvitae are filling this need.
much faster than females. This makes The berries are shiny, vivid red and 5/16
The nursery industry needs to diversify
it perfect to grow as a screening plant, inches (7.9 mm) in diameter. ‘Martha
and pick a few other species. If we
just using male plants. Berry’ is a new introduction that looks
keep putting out the ‘same old same good.
old,’ I guarantee we will see insect The hybrid name koehneana honors
and disease problems hit this limited Bernard Koehne (1848-1918), German Male pollinators include I. × koehneana
number of plants. Plant diversity is one botany professor. Here is a brief cultivars ‘Ajax’, ‘Chieftain’, ‘Jade’, and
of the pillars of an IPM approach to description, genology and some of the ‘Loch Raven’, ‘Apollo,’ although English,
dealing with potential pest problems. plant’s attributes: and other hybrid male hollies that
bloom at the same time will do.
One of the holly groups that holds up • Ilex × koehneana, commonly called
well as barrier, or even as specimen Koehne holly, is a cross between I. Ilex verticillata – Poor Berry Set?
plant, is Ilex × koehneana. We have aquifolium and I. latifolia. I have had inquiries from some nursery
been growing this holly at the farm • It is an erect, narrow-pyramidal, growers that are saying they had
for the last 18 years, and it holds up densely-branched, large, hybrid a poor fruit set on their winterberry
well with winter weather. Bill Kuhl, of evergreen shrub or small tree that plants, Ilex verticillata. I visited with Bill
McLean Nursery, introduced me to this typically grows to 15-25’ tall with a Kuhl of McLean Holly Nursery to discuss
hybrid cultivar years ago. The plant spread to 10-15’ wide. a solution. Bill told me that many
has performed well, riding through the people use ‘Jim Dandy’ as their male
polar vortex and polar express, -8F • Branches are clad with glossy, pollinator, which works for some but
weather, with no real damage showing spiny-margined, elliptic, evergreen, not all female winterberry females. Bill
up the following spring. dark green leaves (2-3” long). suggested that the male ‘Apollo’ had
Inconspicuous, tiny, greenish-white
The cut stems root fairly easily, rooted a long bloom time that started as
flowers bloom in May.
under mist and plants have strong early as ‘Jim Dandy’ but lasted longer

14 SPRING 2022 • Free State News