Kenneth D. Cochran, Secrest Arboretum of The Ohio State University Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Wooster, Ohio; and James A. Chatfield, Ohio State University Extension, Northeast District and Department of Horticulture and Crop Science.
The sophisticated gardener ranks holly high in landscape value. The early colonists gave holly a prominent place because of its beauty and background. What has been done with hollies and with gardens in the past greatly influences landscapes for present-day living.
Formality and exactness in design demand that hollies be placed in relationship to patterns of the garden, generally balanced with walks, walls, gates, borders, and other construction amenities. Naturalizing plants in the landscape tends to scatter hollies in no particular pattern throughout large planting beds.
With the development of many new plants and especially select cultivars of various species — not only hollies — there is a great and varied palette of plants to use in the landscape. Present-day landscapers value the image and prestige of using hollies in two or more of these relationships.
Many tree-form hollies make splendid specimens with foliage full from the ground to the top of the plant. The size and branch structure will vary in holly trees, however, and as an alternative to a low-branched tree, one may desire to remove the lower limbs to expose the trunk or to show an interesting trunk formation.
Holly trees are also fine material for background, screen planting, and foundation planting. They can be sheared to form an almost flat, green wall, selectively pruned to form a looser dense wall, or not pruned and left to grow to maturity.
Shrub-type hollies mature to various sizes and forms, showing their texture and color compatibility with various building materials and architectural styles. Shrubs can be used as an individual specimen, in a step-down border planting, as edging for beds, or massed in a foundation planting with three, five, or seven plants of a kind.
An emphasis should be given to selecting shrubs for landscape relationships of plant size and form, and for ornamental qualities and hardscape elements, all coupled into one or more environments. The dwarf cultivars have potential for bordering terraces and patios, courtyards and entry gardens, and in small gardens.