Winterberry

Ilex verticillata

Winterberry is the native holly built for the conditions that challenge most ornamental shrubs. Wet soil, heavy clay, poor drainage, cold winters, deer pressure. it handles all of it and then, in October, pays back everything you gave it with thousands of small, brilliant red berries that light up the bare stems and stay there through February. No other native shrub delivers this combination of toughness and winter spectacle. The straight species grows larger and more variable than named cultivars, which makes it excellent for naturalizing in wet areas, along pond margins, and in the low-lying back corners of properties. Plant both male and female plants together. you need at least one male for the females to fruit. Once established, this is a plant that asks for nothing and gives back every fall and winter for decades.