Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!

Welcoming in the New Year is always an exciting time for me. If your a plant geek like me or just have a hankering for gardening you can relate. The new year for me means sitting on the floor of my office going through all the new plant and seed catalogs that have started arriving and putting together my wish list "which I always have to condense to a much smaller list later - or I would be in "plant debt".

My goal in starting this blog is to try on a weekly basis to highlight a new and upcoming plant or plant I am very fond of due to its performance in our garden. With the best intentions I hope to hold your interest with updates on "In the Garden @ Giving Tree", upcoming classes, workshops, and our Annual Garden Open House & Plant Sale.

I am also fond of sharing those little embellishments that make a garden exciting, along with fun "How To" and "DIY" projects that we all enjoy.

So instead of sending out a newsletter, I am in hopes this blog will better serve as a way to reach out to each of you , to weave us together in our shared love of gardening!

This is a nice cultivar of our native Winterberry Holly, producing a higher and larger berry count. There are a number of selections of deciduous holly that provide beautiful late fall into winter interest, and supply our winter birds with a food source. This group of hollies also need a male counterpart for the female to produce a good berry show, so it is best to acquire your hollies at a nursery where both female and male cultivars are labeled. No surprise - you just need one male in the garden to keep all the females happy. I have mine planted off to the side, as the male does not berry, and the females planted to seek the center of the fashion runway for their dazzling focal interest.

Berry Nice® Winterberry Holly

Ilex verticillata 'Spriber'

Key feature:	Showy Fruit for Late Fall/Winter Interest
Plant type:	Shrub
Garden styles:	Very Versatile
Deciduous/evergreen:	Deciduous
Cold hardiness zones:	3 - 9
Light needs:	Partial to full sun
Water Needs:	Does well in both average to damp areas.
Average landscape size:	Reaches six to eight feet tall and three to five wide.
Growth habit:	Columnar
Special features:	Attracts Birds, Improved Pest and Disease Resistance, North American Native
Landscape uses:	Woodland Garden, Focal Point, Winter Interest, I love at Christmas cutting to put in arrangements.
Flowers:	Inconspicuous
Foliage color:	Dark Green