Meserve Holly
Ilex x meserveae
A blue-green holly bred on Long Island to bring glossy, spiny leaves and bright red winter berries to cold Northern gardens, a handsome hedge or screen. Give it slightly acid, well-drained soil, shelter from cold winter wind and afternoon shade where summers are hot. Plant a male among the females for berries.
- Mature size
- 10 × 7 ft
- 3 × 2.1 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 5a–7b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Apr–May
Meserve Holly at its mature size
A mature Meserve Holly grows 8 to 12 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Missouri Botanical Garden, Monrovia.
Through the year
What Meserve Holly looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Fruit · Oct–Mar
Glossy blue-green leaves with many bright red berries.
In leaf · Apr–Sep
Glossy spiny dark blue-green leaves, no berries.
Photos
Growing Meserve Holly
- Grows well in
- The Northeast and the Midwest.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Privacy screen, hedge, specimen, and winter interest
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Europe and Japan
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Meserve Holly, that’s about 7 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Meserve Holly in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other hollies
Winterberry Holly
Meserve Holly
Blue Prince HollyBlue Princess HollyAll drawn to the same scale.