Herbs have properties beyond flavoring foods | Features

As the advent season begins, I will be hanging greenery. Holly and ivy have been mainstays of British Advent and Christmas decorations since at least the 15th and 16th centuries. I am fortunate to have plenty of evergreen holly, pine and ivy. I also use Eastern red cedar, another regional favorite, at this time of the year. I love to include these boughs in my celebrations of the season.

Fred Galle, author of “Hollies: The Genus Ilex,” writes that hollies are quintessential Christmas symbols used for centuries in holiday wreaths and Christmas decorations. In mid-nineteenth century London, bunches of English hollies (Ilex aquifolium) adorned houses, churches, street corners, and marketplaces. In parts of England, residents retained the holly sprigs until the following year because they believed that holly boughs would protect their homes from lightning strikes.

American holly (Ilex opaca) is the signature holly of American Christmas. Commonly found as an understory tree, native hollies grow slowly in mixed hardwood forests, dry woodlands, along stream and creek banks, and even in swamps. Female American hollies usually feature red berries though some cultivars bear orange or yellow berries. Other native hollies include yaupon (with the unfortunate botanical name of Ilex vomitoria), winterberry (llex verticillate) and inkberry (Ilex glabra). If you’ve never seen berries on your holly, it is probably a male plant. Ilex is dioecious, requiring male and female plants to produce berries.

American holly can grow over 50 feet high, but many cultivars are smaller. Small hollies make attractive foundation plantings and low hedges. Larger evergreen hollies make attractive, dense hedges and screens. One cultivar named ‘Nellie R. Stevens’ is a cross between English and Chinese holly. Fast-growing, this cultivar features dark-green foliage with large red berries and makes an excellent specimen tree. In cultivation, most hollies require well-drained, slightly acidic soil rich in organic matter. Hollies grow in the sun or part shade. For the best berry production and most compact growth, choose a sunny spot.

English ivy (Hedera helix) is an evergreen vine planted for many decades in South Carolina yards as a shade-loving groundcover. It is fast-growing, drought-tolerant, and generally maintenance-free. However, because its mat-forming growth smothers perennials and smaller shrubs in the landscape, English ivy is considered invasive. English ivy tends to climb anything: fences, homes, or trees. English ivy is uniquely able to attach to objects by aerial rootlets from stems that cement themselves to the object. In trees, English ivy travels quickly to the top, where it flowers and sets fruit then disseminated by birds. Tree limbs covered with English ivy are often smothered. Clemson’s HGIC recommends eliminating English ivy. I have two large pines which used to be covered with English ivy until we cut the large vines at the base of both trees. There’s still some ivy which I can use for decorations at the base of these trees, but I know that by cutting the vines that reached to the tops, we saved both trees.

Retail stores sell miniature-leafed or variegated ivies as house plants. Sometimes these ivies are added to the landscape unintentionally when containers are placed outside, where the ivy grows beyond the container and takes root in the soil. Both the miniature-leafed and variegated ivy cultivars with small white, or yellow leaves may revert to the large-leafed, totally green, and fast-growing type of English ivy. The resulting larger-leafed, green vines outgrow the initial decorative cultivars and quickly get out of control. The moral: Resist the urge to plant English ivy. Confine it to a porch.

In past decades, Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) has been the Christmas tree of choice in the southern U.S. before the availability of plantation-grown trees. I recall that when I was young, my family decorated cedar trees at Christmas. Cedar’s conical shape, wonderful fragrance, decorative blue berries, and availability made native cedars a favorite for trees and green boughs. Families went into the woods to cut a tree for the season, a practice that endures. Sue Watts of the SC Botanical Garden writes that connections between people and Juniperus virginiana run deep. In several Native American cultures, members burn the fragrant wood for purification rituals. The eastern red cedar is regarded as a tree of life. Like hollies, red cedar is dioecious, so only female plants produce the bluish berries loved by cedar waxwings and other migratory birds. In the landscape, Eastern red cedar is a tough and tolerant species, and provides evergreen limbs aplenty for decorating a mantel, a table centerpiece, or draping around a front door.

Celebrate this holiday season with our native hollies and other native evergreens while hanging the Advent green.

Best wishes from Aiken’s Master Gardener Association for a safe and happy holiday season.