Erik's Gardening Tips

Hollies

For a festive holiday seasonal color accent try one of the many hollies in your garden. To most, English and Ameircan hollies are the most familiar, but Chinese and Japanese have wide landscape use as well. The deciduous types offer slightly more showy branches since the foliage drops away in winter to reveal the brightly colored berries.
Hollies are grouped in the genus Ilex and are also associated with good luck. Their bright evergreen (usually) foliage was a reminder that the cold of winter ended and spring would again come in olden times in Europe. In Japan, the plant was used for good luck, warding off bad, misfortune, evil spirits, etc.
Some types can be used for a beverage. Their leaves are steeped like tea and drunk (yaupon).
Any collector of hollies will tell you there are an almost innumerable amount of variations within this group. Trees, large shrubs, small shrubs and narrow upright growths can all be found here. Additionally, there are variegated leaves, most often in yellows or whites in patterns of central colors to marginal colors. Spines are also variable (some hollies have none) and berry color can also vary from the typical reds to oranges and yellows. It is amazing how the amount of spinage on some cvs. can change the look of the leaf and plant. Some are fiercely spiny, others have no spines at all.
Well drained soil is preferred, and sun to shade depeinding on your particular climate exposure and the species being planted. Acid soil is preferred by some, but good friable soil with additional organic matter added will suit most.
Of the more exotic types, I really do recommend Ilex pendunculosa from Japan. This is the long-stalk holly and has dangling red berries on slender stems. They look like small cherries and create movement on the branch whenever they are blown by wind or handled by the hand. The leaves are shiny, dark, leathery ovals, non spiny and come to a sharp point at their tips. You need male and female plants to produce berries, but it is well worth the effort. I only wish this one was more common, it is very difficult to locate, but carefree and eqasy to grow, annually providing a nice show in summer, fall and winter with those bright berries.
The main other Japanese species is I. crenata, and is usually a small fine textured bush. Berries are dark and not very showy. Foliage is glossy and small. A wonderful hedge type plant, or accent for a rock garden/ small planting.
The Chinese holly, I. cornuta is a medium textured holly with stiff spines, although not many spined like some others. Bright orange red berries come, but are not very profuse in most cases, years. This is a common hedge type plant, suitable for low boundary plantings. Easy to grow, it is a staple in many landscapes.
American holly (I. opaca) and English holly, I. aquifolium, are fine ornamentals. They can grow to tree size in time and there are numerous cvs. Berries can come in reds, oranges, and yellows, and there are unusual foliages as well. Variegated types in white and greens as well as yellows and greens are readily found. A narrow leaf form, and even weeping forms are found in this group as well. These are the hollies whose branches provide that festive display for the holidays that everyone knows. They can be used as hedges and screens, or specimens.
The deciduous species are wonderful accents of easy care. They can provide a seasonal show of fall color as well, although not as bright as the berries. I. verticillata is one of the typical deciduous hollies, I decidua is another. There are many varieties of this. Some are dwarf, almost all give heavy berry set and are showy in the garden and cut for branches in a vase, wreathe.

colorful potted plants for Christmas/ holiday season

We are all familiar with the ubiquitous poinsettia in its mainly red or white forms. Newer selections are larger bracted and come in additional forms and colors, cream, pinks, bicolors, splashed patterns and crinkled bracts.
Why not try something a little different like the wonderful Christmas cactus selections.
Here you will find easy care pot plants that can live for many years and privde seasonal blooms by the hundreds if well grown. You get hanging flowers of purple, whites, reds, rose, pinks, cream-golds. Jointed stems form an arching plant. Those same jointed stems can be severed from the mother plant and put into soil and will grow into new plants so you can increase your plant. These tropical cacti make wonderful presents and are truly breath taking when grown on to some size. They can be given as family hierlooms or passed from family member to the next generation. As a matter of fact, before there was much hybridizing done with this group, that was the only way to get plants... You had to know someone with a plant and they had to give you a slip of theirs to start one of your own.
In nature, these plants come from the tropics and grow on the mossy branches of trees like many orchids and bromeliads. They are epiphytes, growing on the branches of trees, but not harming the host plant.
They like a well draining soil mix, good diffuse light and some seasonal change in temperature. Freezing cold will kill them, so protect them when severe frost comes. They make wonderful easy care house plants. a missed watering will slightly shrivel the branches, but the plump up again when watered. The time of bud set is crucial in the sense that the plant should not be moved to a very different environment at that time or else you may cause it to abort the young flower buds. Being consistent in care will give the best conditions for setting buds and a profuse bloom.
A little fertilizer will promote better growth and enhance bloom. Any fertilizer will do alright, just use it very sparingly and water it in well.
The plants can spend the majority of the time outdoors from spring to fall, early winter. Just avoid frosty periods. They like a dappled sun location or high shade if placed outdoors. Many people just leave them inside all the time and they will bloom nicely if they get some good light or sunshine (not severe hot sun!)
An individual hybridizer produced several hundred named forms so that the once limited color range has broadened considerably. Many shades of purple, lavender, pink, rose, red, whites, and cream-gold now can be found. the plants will have jointed stems with either scalloped edges or soft tipped pointed edges to those stems. The pointed edge forms are sometimes called 'crab' cactus.
Botanically these are known/marketed as either Schlumbergera or Zygocactus.

Another easy care plant for the holiday season are Amaryllis hybrids (Hippeastrum spp. and cvs.) These are large bulbs which can be timed to bloom almost to the day. The flowers are huge(to 10" ) and can come in shades of reds (the very dark ones are truly spectacular), pinks, whites, creamy yellows, bicolors(usually red and whites), and petals striped. Additionally, there are doubles and smaller flowered forms which produce more stalks of blooms.
These bulbs usually produce one thick flower stalk, good culture will yield two stalks, but the small flowered forms will give up to 5-6 stalks from several clustered bulbs in the same pot. Often, but not always, the foliage comes either with the blooms or shortly after the flowers fade. Wide straplike foliage with rounded tips emerge fromt ehe large bulbs.
Good drainage, a warm bright-sunny location and regular watering are all that is needed. A fit of fertilizer will give better growth and help in making food for next year's bloom. These bulbs can increase over time and then you can have several pots in bloom eventually.
The bulbs should be allowed to go dormant at some point when the foliage yellows. Just let the bulb go completely dry and rest them for several months. You can actually time the bloom by initiating watering once again. It can take about 6 weeks to bloom after a dormant period. Time and experience will tell you what your conditions give to get the approximate timing of flowering for a special date.