Vic01

Blue girl is an Ilex x meserveae cultivar. These are hardy to zone 5. You would need a really protected site . . . I'm sure there are some folks in the Twin cities that have gotten these to grow in microclimates. PP

Yes, there are several of us that grow Blue Girl and Blue Boy(z4a), in special sites. They would do nicely with azaleas and like the acid soil, but do require winter shade. Home Depot got blue hollies in. I work there and I'll check tomorrow, see what they are, and post.

Rick

Rick, our neighbor owns a hardware store and has quite a nice bunch of plants in every spring. I was browsing down there the other day and noticed he had some holly (can't remember the rest of the name) but it was labeled boy girl holly, supposedly both sexes on the same plant. Are you familiar with that? It caught my eye at the time, but although I do put in 'some' other plants, I try to concentrate on those that benefit and attract birds and butterflies, so wanted to check it out in my reference books before deciding whether I might like one or not.

Funny you should say that jel. Last year, I caught the hollies before coming to home depot. There was only one sex listed, and I called the nursery to tell them forget it unless I can get both. They also told me that it was both sexes on one plant. It was also either Blue Boy or Blue Girl. But they are just idiots. Maybe someday there will be a unisex cultivar, but Boy and Girl definitely are not. If there were such a thing as a Boy Girl holly, it would be raising such a stir in the horticulture community that we all would have heard about it by now. Rest assured, it's a farce.

Vic,
Winter shade is, well, shade in the winter. Or more accurately, shade when the ground is frozen. So this would include March too. Like you suspect, broadleaf trees, as opposed to evergreens, do not supply winter shade. You could supply winter shade by erecting a burlap fence on the south and west sides of the hollies, or by heavily mulching them with a mulch that does not pack. Straw or hay would be optimal, but leaves will work if you shred them or run them through the mower blades first. Raw fallen leaves pack too much, and won't allow anything to breath underneath, and you risk molding live holly leaves. Even with shredded leaves, I would fluff them up in the late winter for some air circulation.

Remember hollies will never get to be as big in MN as in other places in the nation. Give or take some, I think I would plant them on 3 ft centers(from the center of one plant to the center of the next).

Rick

I've had blue prince/princess for 3 years I just want to say these are hard to grow even wrapped in burlap.

It is common to plant 2 sexes in the same pot, they call it berrimagic.