Planting Holly Seedlings
Our annual seedling planting project continues at the farm.
My gardeners and outdoor grounds crew recently potted up hundreds of bare-root trees and other small seedlings. Yesterday, they also transplanted a large grouping of young hollies in a section of my vegetable garden where they can be carefully maintained until they are large enough to move to more permanent locations.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Holly is among the most recognizable plants with its shiny leaves and red berries in fall and winter. Known botanically as Ilex, holly is a genus of about 480 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae. The species include evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide.
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- I have both male and female holly specimens. To grow holly berries, one needs to plant both for pollination. Holly’s glossy leaves look crisp and beautiful all year long. They have alternate simple leaves, and the leaves of many species have wavy margins tipped with spines. These leaves are from Holly ‘Blue Boy’ – a handsome shrub with glossy, blue-green leaves and purple stems.
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- And these leaves are from Holly ‘Blue Girl.’
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- For this planting project, Phurba uses leftover jute twine to create nice straight lines that will guide the planting. Here at the farm, I encourage the crew to reuse, repurpose and recycle whenever possible. It’s important to me that we continue to be mindful of our environment.
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- Phurba secures twine at one end of the fence and walks it backwards to the other end.
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- Once he gets to the other side, he measures the width of the section to ensure it is exactly the same as the previous one. These lines are about a foot-and-a-half apart.
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- Next, Phurba looks at the line and measures the width again – just to be sure.
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- The twine is well-secured at both ends and easy to see.
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- Here is a top view of the spacing we created using the twine. This will be just enough room for the young holly bushes.
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- Here, a generous amount of triple super phosphate is sprinkled on the existing soil. This an enriched source of phosphorus. This will help root growth, and fruit formation.
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- Once the twine is secure, the seedlings are placed evenly along the length of the twined row.
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- The seedlings are perfectly lined up under the twine. Until established, these holly plants will need at least weekly watering.
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- Next, Brian begins digging holes for each of the seedlings. He is using a small pointed shovel, which is specially designed with a sharp angled head that can slice through hard soil and gnarly roots when planting, edging, weeding, or transplanting.
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- Here, one can see that these holly plants are also lined up with the young boxwood growing nearby. The boxwood seedlings have already grown quite a bit since they were planted one year ago.
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- Each hole is about four-inches deep. We had a lot of rain earlier in the week, so the soil was still moist and soft.
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- Brian carefully plants each specimen in a hole.
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- Here is one just removed from its pot. These two to three year old seedlings are only a few inches tall, but they will thrive in this nutrient-rich soil. Holly bushes have very deep, strong roots. They grow between 17 and 25 inches below the dirt. The root system is a taproot. This means holly bushes have one large root that grows straight down and then smaller, less hearty roots that spread out.
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- Large bright markers are used to identify which are the male plants and which are the females.
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- In general, it takes one mature male per acre of females to provide the pollen for honeybees to pollinate the flowers and to create the berries. It will be so nice to see these develop.
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- Holly bushes make attractive additions in the landscape. It is wonderful to be growing these gorgeous specimens right here at my farm. I will continue to share photos with you as they mature.
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