Variegated Holly - Ilex aquifolium Argentea Marginata

Variegated Holly Hedging - Ilex aquifolium Argentea Marginata

Variegated Holly, Ilex aquifolium Argentea Marginata, is a large evergreen shrub or a medium tree that excels when planted as a hedge. A variegated Holly hedge has prickly, glossy green shield-like leaves with distinctive pale yellow to white margins that create a wonderfully vivid foliage display. As with normal Holly, the females carry bright red berries in late autumn and winter that, although inedible for humans, are both attractive to look at and a vital winter food source for birds and animals. Being prickly and evergreen, Holly is an ideal hedging plant for security purposes. It is also extremely tough and will grow well in coastal areas and industial zones. Holly is also one of the hedging plants, along with Laurel and Yew that will cope with deep shade, even where the soil is poor and tends to dryness. Their only requirement is a reasonably well drained soil.

A large Holly hedge is a magnificent wildlife habitat providing a home to a wide variety of birds particularly as the sheltered centre of a holly hedge is a desireable hideout for all sorts of creatures. Because it flowers late, it is also attractive to autumn butterflies and moths when most other plants have given up flowering for the year. Holly berries ripen slowly through the action of the winter frosts, softening each time they freeze and thaw. This gradually releases food for wildlife throughout the winter. Young Holly is a target for rabbits and they like to chew straight through the stem so younger plants will need protection with spirals or tree guards for the first couple of years.

In ancient times, the evergreen plants Holly and Ivy symbolised the spirit of men and women respectively as they struggled to survive the winter. The Holly wreath at Christmas dates back to a pagan custom of making a nest to shelter benign forest spirits during the winter in exchange for their aid with fertility. A white holly staff or spear was said to give men endurance and resistance to sickness; it was probably quite handy in other ways as well!

Please note that berries are only carried on female plants. Your Holly plants are seed grown for strength, rather than taken from cuttings, and they usually will not have revealed their gender by the time they are delivered.

Ilex aquifolium Argentea Marginata are large bushes and should be planted at two to the metre. Holly can grow to 8m in any soil type that does not become waterlogged. Like Yew, it is on the RHS list of plants that are resistant to honey fungus.