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Blue princess/prince holly in shade?

14 years ago

I bought 4 blue prince/princess hollys (need several more) to create a hedge. The care tags say "plant in sun or shade". However, everything else I've read says "full sun or partial shade. So, now I'm driving myself CRAZY trying to figure out how to position them so they get the most of the brief, or dappled sunlight in this area.

My question is, just how much shade can they take? I want to just plant them already! It is not a dark area, but there not much direct sunlight. I even made my daughter go outside hourly when I was working to moniter where it was the sunniest. The owner of a local garden center said he thinks they'd be fine. Anyone have experience with this?

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Comments (4)

tmore
14 years ago
I think they will be fine. One question I have is there any grass growing near the place were you want to plant the hollies if so go for it
Gardeningdoll_hotmail_com
13 years ago
My five Blue Princess Holly were planted in the shade of larch trees and a faus-dry riverbed many,many years ago (ten or so?. The have prospered beautifully and were to the shoulder level of a 5'2" human until the deer trimmed them way back this past hard winter in the Finger Lakes region of New York state. These are the first holly I've ever grown and I put them where I wanted them to grow, which is around a great big flat rock my step-sons carried up from a creek, elevated about 18" by cement blocks. We use the rock as a bird feeder; the holly shelter and protect the little birds who come in to feed. Good luck; I'm sure you will enjoy your hollies.
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Probably not....here in Kingston, they do quite well without any protection. If they have one winter nemesis, it would be the sun. If your hollies are southern or western facing, I would consider covering one (or two) of them up just to compare the winter impact to the uncovered one. The uncovered one will be fine (it may have some leaf burn) and you'll know for next year if all or none need to be covered. If your hollies are northern or eastern facing, enjoy looking at them this winter, they'll be fine. Could the previous owner not shed light on their winter care?
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Oops. I forgot to put "holly" in the original post. I tried to edit it but it would only let me edit the body, not the subject. Botanical name ilex x meserveae. This post was edited by Jim-Ogden-Utah on Tue, Sep 16, 14 at 16:59
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for layering, find branches that will touch the ground. knick the branch with a sharp knife(make a diagonal cut) into the stem. dust with rooting hormone. insert a small piece of toothpick into the wound to hold it open. bury the wound in a pile of soil and water well. if your soil isn't very good you could try rooting it directly into a pot. place a rock on top of the pile of soil to hold the scion down and the dirt in place. should take a few weeks to root. greenwood cuttings; find a branch with new grown. cut it off where its still soft. cut the bottom on an angle and trim off all but two or three leaves. dip in rooting hormone. insert in a pot with potting mix and extra perlite. water well. both ways need indirect light, no full sun. mounding is the same concept only you need a plant that has lots of stems coming from the base of the plant. knick several branches towards the base like with layering, dust with rooting hormone and stick a piece of toothpick in to hold the wound open. then mound the soil up around the base of the plant, covering all of the wounds. water well.
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Where did you get said 'Prince/Princess'? If Home Depot (I've noticed they often tag their Blue hollies with 'Blue Prince/Blue Princess') , I wonder if they don't combine male-female plants in the same pot to assure a berry set. I bought one too and it does get a few berries, though not prolific. But as GardenGal said, if you're getting berries, that plant is female. A closeup pic of the holly flowers would reveal whether they are male or female. Male holly flowers have a depression in the middle; whereas the female flowers have a green developing ovule/berry.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years ago
hey

just plant them where you want. .. they will either thrive or they wont.. why waste time worrying about it all???

full sun is somewhere between 6 and 8 hours of direct sun ... and that is necessary on some plants.. to grow and perform properly ... e.g. a tomato will not grow a large number of fruit [whats that all about] ... w/o full sun ... will it grow green in the shade.. probably ... will it thrive or preform to its potential ?? .. doubtful ....

ANYTHING LESS THAN FULL SUN IS SHADE ... PART SHADE ... PART THIS.. PART THAT ... it is confusing that there are multiple terms for everything other than full sun .. but they all mean the same thing... LESS THAN FULL SUN

just understand that the tag means it will tolerate less than full sun ...

if it end up too dark .. the plant.. over the years.. will become thin .. reaching for sun .. lean ... etc.. you will understand that 'something' is wrong ... basically.. its too dark ... and at that point you will shrug and say to yourself.. live and learn .. and then figure out how to move them ...

good luck

ken
kelly922
10 years ago
Was looking for new design ideas w/Blue Princess hollies and came across this post. Just wanted to add our experience - we've got 2 Blue Princess hollies at our front door in total and complete north facing shade. The sun has never touched them. They produce very few berries obviously but they are THRIVING and absolutely healthy, full and beautiful in this spot. We planted them about 15 years ago and they look great. I prune them selectively to size and shape and fertilize with holly tone every spring - that's it! :-) Good luck!

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