Holly and mistletoe (Holly)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	Holly
Date:	20/07/01 (356 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Attractie in the agrden and in the house.

Disadvantages: those tempting little berries are not good to eat.

Most people are familiar with the holly as a christmas decoration - shiny green leaves, red berries. It's also good as a garden plant.

Holly as a hedge - if pruned regularly, Holly make an excellent, thick and impenetrable hedge that will keep anything out. The prickly leaves will put off any would be human visitors, but small birds and mamals will scurry through. By having a number of trees in a headge you stand a good chance of getting berries on at least some of them. Holly is evergreen, so even in Winter it wil add a bit of colour to your garden.

Holly as a tree. You don't see holly trees that often as people tend to keep them pruned down to bush size. However, they are capable of becoming quite large and impressive. Holly trees grow slowly so there is little risk of the plant suddenly getting out of control. Holly trees are very attractive in shape, and tend to produce berries higher up, so that you can't get at them!

Using Holly. If you are lucky and have a female tree with a male nearby, you will get berries. Picked, branches of berry laden holly make an attractive winter decoration and they do keep quite well in the house. Bear in mind that holly is not good for eating - make sure small children are not tempted by the nice red berries as at the very least they will end up with hurting and poorly tums. (I would recomend contacting a doctor in cases of consumtion, just to be on the safe side.) Also be aware the the prickly holly can be quite unpleasant and scratchy and is not good for handling. (Again, small children beware.) Don't rob your tree of all it's berries - for a start cutting half the branched off in the middle of winter is not going to do the plant any good, and it is nice to leave something for the birds.

There isn't a section for mistletoe, but as I've mostly been talking about the decorative nature of Holly I thought I would mention this other Christmas favourite. Mistletoe grows on
other trees, as a parasite. Fruit trees are best. if you want to have a go, keep back some of the berries. make a small incision into the bark, squash the berry in. Adter that, it's just down to luck. It isn't easy getting misteltoe to take. if you do get some, never pick all of it or you will find you have to start again. Also, do not eat the berries on this one, it's also poisonous.

I think natural decorations are so much nicer than plastic shop bought stuff at Christmas. However, it's better to grow your own than to go plundering the woodlands.

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