Ilex aquifolium argenteo marginata — a beautiful female variety of holly.
I MAKE no apology for returning to a well-worn theme at this festive time of year because gardening is very much a moveable feast and things move on quickly in a year.
The theme is the holly and the ivy, two plants that are very much wrapped up in all that is traditional and festive.
Always remember, both plants are not only highly decorative at Yuletide, they are worth their place in the garden all year round.
Holly is an evergreen tree and can reach a height of over 30ft. It has smooth bark, covering white hard wood that is useful for woodturning and the dark green leaves can be shiny, leathery or waxy.
Some varieties have extremely spiny and prickly leaves, others — mostly the more modern hybrids — are less hard to handle.
Holly also provides an excellent source of shelter and an extremely important food supply for numerous species of birds and other wild animals.
Thrushes, robins, dunnocks, finches and goldcrests use it for nesting as the prickly leaves provide excellent protection; blackbirds, fieldfares, redwings, mistle and song thrushes, among others, eat the berries and hedgehogs, toads and slow worms hibernate in the deep leaf litter that builds up beneath.
The bush is slow growing, so while pruning in winter is good because it can create denser growth, it is important that holly is not over-trimmed. The plant only flowers and produces on two-year-old wood, so pruning too hard can stop it flowering next spring.
Here are some festive facts about holly:
l Holly berries are unusual in that they stay fresh, even through very cold weather — they don't shrivel and dry up or go off, which makes them brilliant for birds right through the winter.
l There are more than 400 species of holly with either prickly, spiny or smooth-edged leaves. Most are evergreen but some are deciduous.
l Thirty-six species of insect have been recorded feeding on holly.
l Under good conditions, holly trees can live to be 300 years old and still produce berries.
l To benefit wildlife, conservationists recommend waiting until February to prune bushes and trees so that cover, insects and berries are left in place for as long as possible.
You only need to look at the way the berries disappear in a matter of a few days when the weather is hard to appreciate the value of holly to wildlife.
The plants are either male or female with only the female plant producing the red berries, which are such an important feature of winter landscapes and gardens.
But, as with every rule, there are exceptions and holly is no exception to that.
Hollies are only mainly dioecious. In other words, most forms have male flowers on one plant and females on another.
But, if berries are a must and space at a premium in small gardens, you could plant J. C. van Tol, a self-fertile holly with not-too-prickly green leaves that can berry on its own.
The world of the holly is a confusing one and a nurseryman, or clear labelling in the plant centre, should come to the rescue.
Unless there is a male in a garden nearby females in your garden could prove a costly, and a barren, mistake.
Plant breeders have not helped the humble gardener by calling a male of the species silver queen and a female Martin, regardless of true gender, so don’t rely on the name.
The RHS Plant Finder is an invaluable tool, listing, as it does, the gender in brackets.
As my old mum would have told you, probably from memory and not having to consult the herbalists’ complementary medicine ‘bible’ Potter’s, holly has a number of uses, including an astringent, a diuretic, an expectorant and a fever reducer.
Specifically, holly has been used for gout, kidney stones and urinary problems, for chronic bronchitis, rheumatism and arthritis.
Ivy has something of a bad reputation, probably gained because it grows by clinging to trees and bushes seemingly choking them to death.
It won’t do that to a healthy tree but it may in the increasingly high winds we are experiencing act like a sail and help topple shallower rooted or sickly specimens.
It is worth the risk, as wildlife experts will tell you.
Like holly, the ivy is an extremely valuable plant for wildlife as it provides shelter at all times and the winter flowers and berries are a reliable food source when other supplies have almost disappeared.
It can reach an impressive 30m (100ft) with support.
In homeopathy, dried ivy leaf extract is used in the treatment of bronchial asthma and coughs. Ivy berry vinegar was said to have been used as a cure in the 1165 Great Plague of London and for those who may be follicly challenged folklore tells us that wearing an ivy wreath on the head prevents baldness.
Choices of holly include ilex aquifolium argenteo marginata, which has broadly oval, spiny dark green leaves streaked with wide cream margins, which can be pink coloured when the leaves are young. This beautiful female variety bears an abundance of bright red berries and is great for hedging or as a specimen plant.
Ilex atlas is an upright male shrub that has spiny, glossy dark green leaves and is an excellent choice for landscaping or hedging.
A tender, large-leaved holly from Madeira (ilex perado) is crossed with English holly to produce ilex x altaclerensis — a bush with rounder leaves and few or no spines.
One form, belgica aurea, is edged in creamy yellow.
Among ivy varieties, hedera helix goldheart is a striking variety with dark green leaves that have a butter yellow centre. It is slow to establish but then grows rapidly and is not suited for ground cover.
Hedera dentata, more commonly known as elephant’s ears, is a vigorous plant that is suitable for growing against a wall or as ground cover. Dentata has large light green drooping leaves and normally will grow to a height of 5m or 15ft.
Mystery plant named
THE good doctor Colin Pope rode to my rescue the other day — again, when I was sent a photograph I could not identify.
Monica Brooks wanted to know the identity of the quite attractive 6ft plant growing under her bird feeder.
The picture was not brilliant, but, Monica, the council’s ecology officer Dr Pope is pretty sure it’s a plant known as niger (guizotia abyssinica).
Guizotia abyssinica originates from the Ethiopian highlands where it was prized for its oil-rich seed.
Here, it is a great feed for birds and finches seem to like it a lot.
Like many imported seeds, it should be heat-treated.
Bird food picture leads to humble pie
I HAVE been soundly told off over the picture chosen to accompany my little piece of a couple of weeks ago extolling the virtues of correctly feeding garden birds.
In it I asked people to avoid using those plastic nets that contain fat balls — and the picture chosen to illustrate the tale? — a blue tit feeding on a fat ball encased in the nasty, tangly, plastic mesh that can easily snare visitors.
Pauline Mayer, from Porchfield, also pointed out that the tit was captioned as feeding on nuts. I thought at first her collection of Sellotaped clippings was one of those blackmail notes, but, seriously, thanks for pointing out what had already made me cringe, Pauline.
Audrey Rann wished me a happy Christmas and 2012 and thanked me for telling her the fruit of the Strawberry Trees she remembered from the top of Quarr Hill was, in fact, edible.
What she found harder to digest was the fat ball encased in plastic — as did her dog which managed to ingest two of them.
She quite rightly points to the RSPB’s feeding advice at www.rspb.org.uk and I too am quite happy to eat humble (mince) pie,
I always appreciate your comments, tips and gardening tales at richryde@tiscali.co.uk or to me at the County Press, Brannon House, 123 Pyle Street, Newport PO3O 1ST.
Sometimes it may take a while for them to be used. Like a squirrel and his nuts, or a builder and his jobs, I tuck ideas away to use at fallow times. Your support is greatly appreciated. Happy Christmas!