Winterberry Holly, Black Alder 'Winter Red'

On Feb 4, 2014, Rickwebb from Downingtown, PA wrote:

It is a beautiful shrub that is neat, clean, and looks good all four seasons. Not all shrubs look good all year with good form, foliage, buds, stems and bark, and berries, though the yellow fall color is not real good. Many shrub favorites as Forsythia have pretty flowers and not much more. I planted several of this female cultivar of 'Winter Red' in my backyard in southeast Pennsylvania, where this plant is commonly planted, and I planted one male cultivar called "Southern Gentleman' to be pollinate the girls. The white waxy flowers bloom in June, and the male flowers have four stamen while the female flowers have one pistil in the middle.It does not do well with drought and should be watered at such times.

On Jan 22, 2007, ViburnumValley from Scott County, KY (Zone 5b) wrote:

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 t... read morehat'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.