Soft Touch Japanese Holly
Ilex crenata ‘Soft Touch’ · a soft mounding Japanese holly
A low, rounded Japanese holly whose soft, pliable branches make it a friendly choice along walks and steps where people brush past. It handles clay and dry spells better than most Japanese hollies. Give it acid soil; alkaline soil yellows the leaves.
- Mature size
- 3 × 3 ft
- 0.9 × 0.9 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 5b–9a
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Dry to moist
- Blooms
- May–Jun
Soft Touch Japanese Holly at its mature size
A mature Soft Touch Japanese Holly grows 2 to 4 feet tall and 2 to 6 feet wide.
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: NC State Extension, pubs.ext.vt.edu, saundersbrothers.com, farmerships.meadowsfarms.com.
Through the year
What Soft Touch Japanese Holly looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Year-round
Small, soft, spineless dark green leaves on pliable branches, evergreen.
Growing Soft Touch Japanese Holly
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Hedge, small space, foundation planting, and drought tolerant
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Japan and Korea
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Soft Touch Japanese Holly, that’s about 3 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 Soft Touch Japanese Holly in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other hollies
Gem Box InkberrySoft Touch Japanese Holly
Helleri Japanese Holly
Dwarf Yaupon HollyAll drawn to the same scale.