RE: I 'Blue Girl' was Ilex opaca

Marge, 

My  Ilex meserveae 'Blue Stallion' is in full shade on the side of the
garage. It grows fairly open there and has taken weird shapes.  I should
have pruned it to keep it compact, I suppose, but I just let it grow. It has
seeded in this bed and I have new hollies that are maybe five years old that
I keep meaning to move.  This is a mixed shade bed under a mature oak. There
are ferns, primroses, astilbe, azaleas, Mt. laurel, enkianthus, leucothoe,
and some lilies on the ends where a bit of sun can reach.

I. x 'Blue Girl' is on the side of the house in the same kind of shade.  One
bush never sees the sun, but it grows well.  Mine are large, hedge shapes as
they are next to a walkway. Before I pruned them they didn't have a neat
conical shape.  I think pruning early would have been the way to go with
these.  Can't beat them for their blue-green leaves and berries, though!

I'm sticking to rock garden varieties now as I don't feel like pruning more
hollies every year! My opaca naturally took on that gorgeous Christmas tree
shape.  I find it has more leaf damage (leaf miner). The blue varieties show
no damage at all!  The English holly and the opaca drop the most leaves.  I
hate raking these!  They seem to take forever to break down as well.

Oh, I. crenata seeds around as well and I have transplanted these seedlings
to other parts of the garden. 

Chris
Long Island, NY
Zone 7a (Average min temp 50 - 00)

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