AR Gardener Magazine
Articles
Ilex x attenuata 'Foster #2', Foster Holly
By looking at today’s landscape, one would assume that hollies had always
been an important part of the southern garden scene. Such is hardly the case.
Before World War II relatively few hollies, with the exception of a few chance
seedlings of the American or deciduous types, were grown in gardens. Prior to
the big war the nursery industry was primarily situated in zones 5 and 6 where
many of the evergreen species didn’t flourish. At that time almost all nursery
stock was field grown. Southern nurseries, while not completely absent from the
scene, were small and tended to have only local or regional markets.
The increased popularity of hollies after WWII has its roots in activities of
the Plant Introduction Service, a branch of the US Department of Agriculture.
The director of the service at that time was B. Y. Morrison who, as an active
and productive horticulturist, couldn’ t resist growing plants from seed.
Hollies were among the plants he had his men (and they were all men at that
time) grow from plants originally collected by plant explorers such as Wilson
and Myer a generation earlier. He sent seedlings to nurserymen throughout the
country during the 30's where they sat waiting the end of the war. In the
post-war building boom that occurred the demand for evergreen shrubs increased
dramatically and the number of new holly introductions increased exponentially
during the next two decades. Container production spread from California to the
South where many new nurseries developed to take advantage of the favorable
climate.
Foster holly, an I. x attenuata clone, is a chance hybrid that
occurred between a narrow leafed form of the Dahoon Holly (I. cassine
var. angustifolia) as the female parent and American Holly (I. opaca)
as the daddy in the union. It has thinner leaves and more resembles the Dahoon
holly parent than the American parent, but the plant form is more opaca-like.
The trees grow 25 to 30 feet tall with a spread of six feet, giving them a
narrow, conical form. The bright evergreen leaves are two inches long and
elongated with one to three small, nonthreatening spines on each side of the
leaf margin near the tip.
The typical form seen in gardens is ‘Foster No. 2', also called ‘Fosteri’, a
female clone that produces an abundance of red, pea-sized fruit even on young
plants. The male pollinator of the Foster set is ‘Foster No. 4', but male
American hollies will also pollinate the female "No. 2". The Foster hollies were
selected by E. E. Foster of Foster Nursery, Bessemer, AL and released in the
1940's. He selected five plants out of his seed beds, giving them numbers one
through five. Foster No. 2 is the most important of the lot.
Foster holly is an excellent plant for planting near an entry or off the
corner of the house to provide vertical accent. Like most plants with this
strikingly conical form, it can be grown as a free-standing specimen or massed
together. It also makes an excellent tall screen or can be sheared into a hedge.
If used in mass plantings, the length of the mass should be at least one and a
half times longer than the plants will be allowed to grow tall to create visual
harmony.
Like most hollies, Foster holly does best in a reasonably good garden soil
where it can receive some water during dry periods. The soil pH should be on the
acid side. While best in full sun, it will do well in medium shade. Foster holly
can be sheared as needed to keep it full or left to its own devices. If plants
ever get too large, they can be stubbed back severely in the spring just before
new growth starts and will regrow quickly to a compact but smaller size.
This story first appeared in the
AR
Gardener Magazine.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist - Ornamentals
Plant Profile - November / December 2001
Back to AR Gardener Magazine Articles
|
