Featured
Plant Profile
Winter Plant Pick 2009

Ilex Verticillata

Common
     Winterberry

As we settle into another long winter of bleak landscapes stripped of their past seasonal splendors, there is one plant in particular, Common Winterberry that never fails to brighten up ones dreary winter day. Winterberry, a native shrub of the U.S. east coast where it typically grows in wet and swampy areas, is a deciduous species of Holly known for its bright red berries. In late September the berries ripen and persist after leaf drop well into January and February, with some cultivars holding their fruit through March.

Common Winterberry has alternate two to three inch long green leaves and small white inconspicuous flowers that bloom in early summer. The rounded oval-shaped shrub may seem rather dull during the growing season, but it’s not until the plants leaf drop in autumn that the clusters of rosy red berries, bunched tightly together on the dark gray branches set an otherwise barren landscape aglow with fiery intensity. The cut branches of Winterberry are often used as decorative accents in seasonal wreathes and flower arrangements. Native birds such as Robins, Cedar Waxwings, and Mockingbirds flock to the shrub in fall and winter for its nourishing berries.

Winterberry is dioecious and needs a male plant in order to pollinate the berry-producing females. Plants usually reach six to nine feet high and wide and are best utilized in native plantings, along streams and wetlands, as well as massed in a mixed border, alongside ornamental grasses and asters. It prefers a moist acidic soil, high in organic matter and can be planted in periodically wet areas such as wetlands and riverbanks. Winterberry takes part shade but prefers full sun where growth and berry production are at its strongest. It is a very dependable low maintenance plant, with limited pruning needed, and is free of major disease and insect problems. ‘Red Sprite’ is a dwarf cultivar I often employ in areas of limited space. It typically reaches a height and width of three to five feet with glorious red berries almost a half inch in diameter. If space isn’t an issue, Winterberry ‘Winter Red’ is an excellent choice for its abundant long-lasting berries. At maturity it can reach eight to ten feet high and wide. Make room in your garden this spring for Winterberry and rest assured that the landscape will be a little brighter next winter.

- James McLoughlin

Also see: Winter 2010 The Himalayan Sweetbox  Spring 2009 Brunnera Macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’   Spring 2008 The Yoshino Cherry  Summer 2009 Geranium ‘Rozanne’  Fall 2009 - the Itea Virginica ‘Little Henry’

NOFA accredited organic
landcare professional.

Rooted in tradition since 1975

Rooted in tradition since 1975