Yaupon is borderline in upper zone 7. Some cold years it can freeze back. I do not believe it is native to Long Island, but I could be wrong. Goodness, for zone 7 there are SO very many hollies that are better looking than American Holly. Fosters #2 is nice, fast, good berries. Smaller leafed. Nellie Stevens is the default holly planted here. Takes shearing very well, but does get TALL. Look into 'Mary Nell'. Incredible leaf gloss and BERRIES, oh so many berries most years. 'Blue Maid' is a nice very hardy blue holly which grows slowly to 12 feet. It takes its time and will not need much pruning. Castle Wall is a very upright grower. (another Blue Holly). Chindo Viburnum might be worth looking into, if it's hardy in your area. Fast grower, very glossy, no spines. This post was edited by dave_in_nova on Mon, Sep 16, 13 at 9:43

WOW! Yes, the Arnoldia one sure does! It confirms what I suspected, the name is a nothospecies name. There are just so many contradictions (like smivies' first link) that I thought maybe there was something I was missing. Ilex x meserveae contains only crosses (and backcrosses) between I. rugosa and I. aquifolium. Cultivars with any other parentage, like Ilex 'Mesdob' (aka China Boy), are not members of Ilex x meserveae. Sources like The Holly Society of America, The Morton Arboretum, Bernheim Arboretum, The University of Illinois, UConn, Monrovia, and hundreds of nurseries (at least in some of their documents) have it wrong. Thanks Wendy!

Couple things worth bumping this for: The new URL to see 24h min temperature is this: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?&zoom=12&center=39.46879995920132,-76.18812561035156&basemap=OpenStreetMap&boundaries=true,false&hazard=true&hazard_type=hi-all&hazard_opacity=60&obs=true&obs_type=weather&elements=temp,wind,gust&obs_popup=false&obs_density=10 Although you still have to use the controls at left to set that as the criteria; unlike the old one the controls don't seem to generate a new URL for every data request. (may depend on browser) You can of course bookmark a different URL with coordinates closer to your area. And...last week I swung by McLean Nursery on the way to a Dr.'s appointment. Mr. Kuhl was in the middle of operating his old farm tractor but we spoke for a couple minutes...I was in a hurry anyhow. He said his 'Scepter' was undamaged, and that the reason mine was so injured might have been not being well established. I know his part of Baltimore had similar lows to mine, and has to be pretty windy as well since it's on a hill. (the nursery is on Satyr Hill Rd. after all)

Interesting. So I have been watching the fruity one for 3 years now, and it seems to have that yellowish tinge every year. I just thought it was its natural color. It does seem to have a lighter colored leaf even in summer. Below are some pix I've taken at different times of year. (Yes, I'm obsessed with the stupid tree :-). We did have a dry late summer, maybe that contributed. But on the other hand - look at the foliage color difference between the two hollies even in summer: 2016-11-12: 2017-01-12: 2017-08-16: 2019-05-22