Both plant families offer a wide range of wonderful evergreen varieties, with many boasting beautifully variegated leaves. Fruits and berries provide seasonal food for hungry birds, but if you want a few sprigs to enjoy indoors you’ll need to protect berry-laden branches with pieces of tightly fastened fine netting or fleece to keep birds away.
Top four favourite holly varieties
- ‘Golden King’ – Berrying female variety
- ‘Silver Queen’ – Male variety
- ‘J.C. van Tol’ – Self-fertile berrying female variety
- Hedgehog Holly (Ilex ‘Ferox Argentea’) – Male variety
- ‘Sulphur Heart’ (also sometimes called ‘Paddy’s Pride’)
- Hedera colchica ‘Dentata Variegata’
- ‘Glacier’ – versatile variegated variety, often used in indoor arrangements
- ‘Ivalace’ – attractive crimpled and lobed green leaves
www.the-hta.org.uk/plantofthemoment