J C Van Tol Holly Hedge Plants

Ilex aquifolium J C Van Tol: Female Variegated Holly Plants, Red Berries

Ilex J C Van Tol has such smooth, flat leaves that people won't recognise them as holly at first glance. The good-sized clusters of glossy red berries are unmistakeable, though.

It is often grown as a pillar-shaped shrub or topiary specimen, and it makes a first-class evergreen hedge. Popular with birds.

Browse our holly hedging plants or our full range of hedging.

Holly is only delivered pot-grown, year round. All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots and pot aren't measured).

Features:

• Evergreen leaves muffle sound & slow down wind well.
• 100% female plants, self fertile
• Smooth flat leaves, no spines
• Beautiful specimen or clipped hedging
• Shade and damp tolerant
• Honey fungus-resistant
• RHS Plants for Pollinators
• RHS Award of Garden Merit
• To 4-6 metres as a tree

Growing

Hollies will grow on just about any soil, both chalky and acidic. They grow well in quite deep shade, near the sea, and in areas of atmospheric pollution. Mature plants are drought resistant.

Spacing a Holly hedge: Plant Holly at 2 or 3 plants per metre, 33-50cm apart.

In Your Garden Design

Use as a single specimen plant, which can be trimmed and shaped, or left to its own devices; place it so that the lovely red berries and glossy leaves can be admired in winter. Its dense growth means it works well well as an attractive hedge or backdrop to the border, and you can even have it as a pleached hedge, with room underneath for the likes of narcissi, primroses and tulips.

Did You Know?

This Dutch variety from the late 1800s maintains about the same leaf shape as the most mature foliage at the tops of holly trees, which naturally loses its prickles and wavy shape. It has also been classified as Ilex aquifolium polycarpa.