Overview

Introduce timeless elegance and vibrant color to your garden with the China Girl Holly live plant. This captivating evergreen shrub, scientifically known as Ilex × meserveae ‘China Girl’, is celebrated for its lush, dark green foliage that provides year-round visual interest. Perfect for adding structure and beauty to any landscape, the China Girl Holly live plant is a resilient and attractive choice for both novice and experienced gardeners. Its dense, mounding habit makes it an excellent specimen plant, hedge, or border accent. This particular offering is a healthy 6-12 inch seedling, carefully nurtured in a quart pot, ready to thrive in its new outdoor environment.

The China Girl Holly is renowned for its exceptional hardiness and adaptability, making it a favorite among landscapers. Beyond its evergreen appeal, this shrub truly shines in fall and winter when it becomes adorned with a spectacular display of bright red berries. These berries not only add a festive touch to the colder months but also serve as a valuable food source for local wildlife. With its manageable size and attractive appearance, the evergreen holly shrub ‘China Girl’ is an investment in enduring garden beauty.

Key Benefits

The China Girl Holly live plant offers a multitude of benefits, enhancing the aesthetic and ecological value of your outdoor space:

• Year-Round Visual Interest: Enjoy vibrant dark green foliage throughout all seasons, providing consistent color and structure even in winter landscapes. This evergreen quality ensures your garden always looks lively.
• Stunning Red Berries: Produces an abundance of bright red ornamental berries in fall and winter, adding a festive splash of color and attracting birds, enhancing natural biodiversity. Remember, a male pollinator nearby is key for optimal fruiting.
• Low Maintenance & Adaptable: Once established, this shrub is relatively easy to care for, tolerating a range of soil types and light conditions. Its natural resilience makes it a great choice for various garden designs, from formal to informal.
• Versatile Landscaping Shrub: Its dense, mounding growth habit makes it perfect for use as a specimen plant, in mixed borders, as a foundation planting, or even as a hedge. The outdoor holly plant can be lightly pruned to maintain its desired shape and size.
• Excellent for Privacy & Screening: Due to its dense foliage and mature size of 8-10 feet tall and 6-8 feet wide, the evergreen holly shrub can create effective natural screens or privacy hedges.
• Hardy & Resilient: Thrives in USDA Hardiness Zones 4–9, demonstrating strong resistance to cold weather and various environmental stressors, ensuring long-term health and beauty.
• Attracts Wildlife: The bright red berries are not only beautiful but also provide a crucial food source for birds during the colder months, contributing to a healthy garden ecosystem.

Plant Care & Growing Tips

Caring for your China Girl Holly live plant is straightforward, ensuring it thrives and beautifies your landscape for years to come. Begin by selecting an appropriate planting site. This resilient shrub prefers a location with full sun to partial shade. Full sun encourages denser foliage and more abundant berry production, while partial shade is tolerable, especially in hotter climates where it can protect the plant from intense afternoon sun. Ensure the chosen spot has well-drained soil, as waterlogged conditions can be detrimental to holly roots. Amending heavy clay soils with organic matter can improve drainage significantly.

When planting, dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball and just as deep. Carefully remove the Ilex meserveae China Girl from its quart pot, gently loosen any circling roots, and place it in the hole so that the top of the root ball is level with the surrounding soil. Backfill with soil, lightly tamping to remove air pockets, and water thoroughly. During its first growing season, moderate watering is crucial to help the plant establish a strong root system. Water deeply when the top few inches of soil feel dry to the touch, but avoid overwatering. Once established, the China Girl Holly is relatively drought-tolerant but will benefit from supplemental watering during prolonged dry spells.

Pruning should be done lightly to maintain shape or encourage fullness. The best time to prune is after flowering or in late winter before new growth emerges. Avoid heavy pruning in late summer or fall, as this can remove the wood that will produce next season’s berries. Fertilize in early spring with a balanced, slow-release granular fertilizer formulated for acid-loving plants. A layer of mulch around the base of the plant will help conserve soil moisture, regulate soil temperature, and suppress weeds. Keep an eye out for common pests like scale or spider mites, which can be treated with horticultural oil or insecticidal soap. For optimal berry production, ensure a male holly pollinator, such as ‘Blue Prince’ or ‘Blue Boy’, is planted nearby within 50 feet. This cross-pollination is essential for the female red berry holly to set fruit.

Size & Details

Your purchase includes one healthy China Girl Holly live plant. This seedling arrives in a quart-sized nursery pot, with the plant measuring approximately 6-12 inches tall from the top of the soil. This size is ideal for establishing quickly in your garden or landscape. At maturity, the ‘China Girl’ variety grows to an impressive size, typically reaching 8-10 feet in height and spreading 6-8 feet wide, forming a dense, mounding shrub. Its growth rate is moderate, allowing it to fill out your space beautifully over a few seasons. The plant is shipped with its root ball intact within the pot, ensuring minimal transplant shock and a smooth transition to its new home.

The foliage is a rich, dark green, providing a lush backdrop for the bright red berries that emerge in fall and persist through winter. This outdoor holly plant is evergreen, meaning its leaves remain on the plant year-round, offering continuous color and texture. It is a female variety, requiring a male pollinator nearby (such as ‘Blue Prince’ or ‘Blue Boy’ holly) to produce its signature ornamental fruits. Expect the plant to begin producing berries once it reaches a certain level of maturity and a suitable pollinator is present. It is well-suited for USDA Hardiness Zones 4-9.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: How big does this plant get? A: The China Girl Holly live plant typically grows to a mature height of 8-10 feet and spreads 6-8 feet wide, forming a dense, mounding shrub. It becomes a substantial presence in the landscape.
• Q: What size pot does it come in? A: This offering is for a 6-12 inch seedling that comes planted in a quart-sized nursery pot, ready for transplanting into your garden.
• Q: Is this an indoor or outdoor plant? A: The Ilex meserveae China Girl is an outdoor plant, best suited for landscape planting due to its mature size and hardiness requirements.
• Q: How much sunlight does it need? A: This evergreen holly shrub thrives in full sun to partial shade. Full sun encourages the best berry production, but it can tolerate some afternoon shade, especially in warmer climates.
• Q: Is this plant easy to care for? A: Yes, the China Girl Holly is considered relatively easy to care for. It’s hardy and adaptable, requiring moderate watering and occasional pruning once established.
• Q: What condition will it arrive in? A: Your red berry holly will arrive as a healthy, live seedling in its quart pot, carefully packaged to ensure its safe journey. During colder months, it may appear dormant, which is normal.
• Q: Does it produce berries? A: Yes, the ‘China Girl’ is a female variety known for its bright red berries. However, it requires a male holly pollinator planted nearby to produce fruit.
• Q: When is the best time to plant? A: The best time to plant is in spring or early fall, allowing the plant to establish its root system before extreme summer heat or winter cold.
• Q: Will it survive winter in my zone? A: The China Girl Holly is highly cold-hardy, thriving in USDA Hardiness Zones 4-9, making it suitable for a wide range of climates.
• Q: What type of soil does it prefer? A: This outdoor holly plant prefers well-drained soil. It can tolerate various soil types but performs best in slightly acidic, fertile soil.