Here are some pictures of my bigger Hollies from March of last year. I think opinions were split between Ilex cornuta but leaning towards Nellie Stevens. Sam said"Your female holly is blooming now and has green stems, it has no I. opaca blood in it. Try searching your state's botanical garden website and compare to Nellie Stevens. NS is self-fruiting, did your tree bloom last year, did it make fruit? If not you may have one of several cornuta hybrids."

Many Ilex can hybridize, but only if they overlap in bloom time and if there are pollinating insects present to transfer the pollen (or humanoids). So - see when each of your species of hollies come into bloom, and see whether you have a shot at some interesting seedlings. Otherwise, get the late Fred Galle's fine tome Hollies: The Genus Ilex for more than you can possibly understand about everything holly. BTW: The annual meeting of the Holly Society of America is coming up on October 22-25, 2009 at Martha's Vineyard, MA. Be there or be square.

"Northern" American holly. I have these cold tolerant "northern" hollies (Ilex opaca) growing at my nursery. I also have the most southern American hollies from Florida (actually the "scrub holly" Ilex opaca var. arenicola). Both of these American hollies grow very good in zone 7. Parker L. Piping Tree Gardens & Nursery 13171 Scotchtown Road, Beaverdam, VA 23015

Spruce, Hi again. Good to see you! Would love to visit but it's going to be a busy spring and summer...plan to plant even more BLEs than I did last spring. I have roughly 200 things in pots and really need to start moving some out into the garden...this will mean lots of watering and aftercare for the first year. Maybe in the fall if we have a good growing season. (and alas, more incoming...though I tried to stop myself. What Rhododendron collector could resist trying this: Korbel | Singing Tree Gardens Nursery Even though it looks rot susceptible. I'll give it the mound of sand treatment that so far, has kept Barlup's 'Wild Ginger' alive. Something about the combination of shape and glossiness looks a little suspicious on 'Satyr Hill'. It's especially 'incriminating' that it was found near McLean LOL. OTOH, as I stated, Eurasian X North American crosses are hard to produce, very unlikely to occur naturally, and I'm not aware of any ever having been deliberately grown at McLean. (Mr. Kuhl and I briefly discussed the topic, when I told him about the Foster X Highclere at Rutgers) As you point out, there is a lot of variation in Ilex opaca. So, who knows. Maybe just a lucky variation. Was looking at the wild opaca in the woods near my house today, and noticed a few burnt leaves, even on those! They perhaps have a more hard scrabbled life than the large opaca planted in my garden, most (3 out of 4) of which I plan to eventually remove. No visible damage on those.