Oakleaf Holly
Ilex ‘Conaf’ · an evergreen screening holly with red berries
A hybrid holly with glossy, oak-shaped, spiny leaves that open purple-green, and orange-red berries that last through most of the winter for birds. Unlike most hollies it sets fruit on its own, with no male needed. Its upright, pyramidal form makes a fine screen or formal hedge, and it takes pruning well.
- Mature size
- 17 × 13 ft
- 5.5 × 4 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 6a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part sun
- Water
- Medium
- Blooms
- Apr–May
Oakleaf Holly at its mature size
A mature Oakleaf Holly grows 15 to 20 feet tall and 12 to 15 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: gardenerspath.com.
Through the year
What Oakleaf Holly looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Fruit · Oct–Feb
Scattered bright red berries among the glossy dark green leaves.
In leaf · Mar, Jun–Sep
Glossy dark green lobed leaves, no berries.
New growth · Apr–May
Bronze-red to burgundy new shoots at the branch tips over glossy dark green.
Growing Oakleaf Holly
- Grows well in
- The Northeast and the Southeast.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Privacy screen, hedge, specimen, deer resistant, and winter interest
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- China
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Oakleaf Holly, that’s about 13 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 Oakleaf Holly in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other hollies
Oakleaf Holly
Needlepoint HollyOakland Holly
Nellie Stevens HollyAll drawn to the same scale.