PlantFiles: Winterberry Holly, Black Alder
Ilex verticillata 'Winter Red'

Winter Red is a very nice Winterberry, which has fruited yearly for us with a good crop of berries. I have tried some other cultivars with different colored berries, but Winter Red is by far the most robust and vigorous of the cultivars I've tried. In a grey, late autumn/early winter landscape, the berries almost glow! I've not planted it in the best of spots in terms of ground moisture, yet it still grows well. I wouldn't hesitate growing this one for lack of a moist spot. Watering during dry spells when the plant was young was sufficient in our area, and now the plant is virtually neglectable!

Winter Red® winterberry is simply the best winterberry ever introduced to the gardening world. If the late Bob Simpson of Vincennes IN (nurseryman extraordinaire and just very nice gentle soul) never selected another plant in his lengthy career, it wouldn't have mattered. This plant stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Winter Red® winterberry requires no more effort to grow than other Ilex verticillata, asking for only moist/wet soils (such as one might have by their downspout or leaky faucet) and acid reaction if it can get it, though I have grown most all the deciduous hollies here in central KY on circumneutral clay loam soils without difficulty. Oh, and Winter Red® also prefers to have a willing suitor/pollinator such as 'Southern Gentleman'.

And that's when the show begins. Winter Red® produces prodigious flowers, and when amply pollinated, goes to town with fruit production. One male pollinator per about 5 Winter Red® is enough. The fruit starts coloring up before the leaves turn color in the fall, usually by early October here. The leaves may change to a decent yellow before dropping, but you won't worry about that in anticipation of the display to come.

There simply is no room for more berries on a stem. The bright red fruit jostle for position, weighing the branches with their numbers. This show goes on all winter, with fruit usually in decent color all the way up to leaf out in the spring. Birds seem to leave most all the winterberries alone in favor of the other available fruit.

And you thought the superlatives were done. Do you enjoy decorating for the winter holidays (or the rest of the year)? Cut stems of Winter Red® will last for years if collected and put in dry arrangements. I have had them on my mantle and in vases for more than two years with retained (though dried) fruit which will turn a more blood red after 6 months.

If left to choose one fruiting plant (with a male pollinator), I think I'd select Winter Red®, hands down.