Plants of the Week
- Winterberry Holly
Winterberry Hollies
(Ilex verticillata) add bold color to the winter garden. Their bright berries hold through much of the winter adding color and contrast. Winterberry hollies are a group of slow-growing, deciduous shrubs. They have a rounded form and attractive glossy green summer foliage. The shrubs are attractive all summer, however, the blooms and fall color are insignificant. It is in late summer when these shrubs become a garden focal point. This is when the berries turn bold colors: a sight that is even more dramatic after the foliage drops. Berries are formed on female plants. At least, one male plant is needed nearby for berries to be produced. That male plant may pollinate up to 10 female plants. Winterberry hollies are extremely hardy to our area. They are easy to grow in full to part sun; the best fruit is produced in full sun. They enjoy loamy soils, but easily tolerate heavier soils. Moist soils are best, but they easily adapt to wet conditions and tolerate some dryness once established. They have no serious insect or disease issues and require minimum maintenance. Winterberry hollies make excellent winter specimen shrubs and have extra impact when planted in groups. Add them to borders, foundation plantings, naturalized plantings and wildlife gardens. They are especially effective when larger evergreens are utilized as a backdrop. -Sarah Wiley / Natorp’s
I have an announcement to make. I have recently become a new papa! That’s right – my Pregnant Onions are not only flowering, they have produced babies! Pretty cool, huh? Okay, if you’re not familiar with pregnant onions (and neither was I until someone sent me some babies to plant – which by the way have been growing under the watchful eye of our greenhouse manager Pat Greeson), they’re not really an onion at all, and no, they are NOT edible. Ornithogalum longibracteatum is an easy to grow succulent bulb (native to South Africa and grows well outdoors in similar climates like southern California – potted houseplant for us), with long pendulous evergreen leaves (Amaryllis like). The bulb basically grows on top of the soil which is very cool! As the bulbs mature, they begin to produce a long flower spike that is studded with multiple attractive small white flowers that are striped in green. And it gets its name “pregnant onion” from the fact that it looks like an onion set when you plant them, grows like a big onion, and then produces baby bulblets around the perimeter of the main bulb, which actually start under the bulb’s skin, and then pop out of the skin when they get large enough – thus the name “pregnant onion”. And right now, mine are having “baby bulblets” as well as sending up flowers! Woo-Hoo! Okay, so it doesn’t take much to get me excited. But I think this is a great example of how much fun growing plants can be, especially when every now and then you get to try something unusual like pregnant onions. Which by the way are generally not found too often for sale in garden stores, but are available thru the internet or from someone who would like to give up a few babies for adoption. Gotta run – my “babies” are calling for their papa. -rw J
[Ever feel like you're diagonally parked in a parallel universe?]
