10 Best Types of Holly Bushes and Trees
The gorgeous and glossy Holly has been a landscaping backbone for centuries! With their unique leaf shapes, dainty little white blooms, and their incredibly showy berries in the fall, it's no wonder they've inspired folklore and superstition, and have embedded themselves in our Holiday traditions so seamlessly!
But did you know there were so many types of Holly plants for landscaping?
Holly Bush and Tree Varieties at Nature Hills
Get Growing Diversity With Holly from Nature Hills!
Botanically known as Ilex, Holly is a vast genus of about 400 species, perfect for year-round garden interest! All have gorgeous foliage, pollinator-friendly white or greenish flowers, and colorful berries to enhance their unique foliage and dependable growth further!
Check out the many different types of Holly shrubs and Holly trees, and what they bring to your landscape design!
American Holly (Ilex opaca) - Native Evergreen Holly Trees

The great American Holly is native to North America and perfect for privacy screening. Typically very large trees and shrubs, the American Holly features white spring blooms, and the female plants produce glossy, brilliant red berries for fall and winter interest!
Growing very large, upwards of 50 feet in height or more, American Holly features spiny, pointed lobes. The very kind you think of when picturing a traditional Holly bush! Holly trees for privacy and screening bring lush, year-round protection from peeping neighbors.
Benefits Include:
- Dioecious - needs a male plant to pollinate the female plants
- Broadleaf Evergreen - Foliage remains year-round
- American native Holly for wildlife gardens
- Mighty windbreaks and natural barriers
- Privacy hedges for large properties
- Garden backdrops and anchor plants
- Grand specimens and focal points
- Holly plants with berries that are glossy and persistent
- Bird-friendly shelterbelts
- Snow barriers for drifting snow protection
- Armed deterrents and property definition
- Year-round screening solutions
Able to be sheared and shaped, American Holly trees are often used as impressive privacy hedges for when you need to block the view from not just eye level, but also from 3, 4, and even 5-story windows (in time)! Just give these large-scale broadleaved evergreens some space, or prune them as narrow as needed. Or create unique Holly Trees by removing their lower limbs and exposing the single-stem or multi-trunked stems.
Winterberry Holly (Ilex verticillata) - Deciduous Holly for Wet Areas

Another type of native Holly is the American Winterberry Holly. Also known as the Michigan Holly, or Canada Holly, Winterberry Holly is a native deciduous Holly shrub.
The female shrubs display brilliant red, orange, or even yellow-colored berries for fall and winter interest! Both male and female shrubs have inconspicuous green-to-white flowers that the pollinators love, even if you won't see them. The leaves lack the spines of the American Holly, but are still a gorgeous glossy green throughout the growing season. Low-maintenance Holly shrubs like these are a dream to include in your landscape!
Benefits Include:
- Deciduous Holly with separate male and female shrubs
- Brilliant berries for winter interest & natural holiday decorations
- Great in moist soil locations & a great Holly for rain gardens
- Backdrops and back-of-the-border landscaping
- Foundation plants and low-maintenance hedges
- Light screening and property definition
- American native with spineless foliage
- Bird-friendly fruit if a male is nearby to pollinate the female
A great deciduous shrub that tolerates lowland areas where it grows natively. Typically occurring in swamps, damp thickets, low woods, and along ponds and streams, Winterberry looks great in your Rain Garden or in locations that can have more than moist soil conditions!
Male Winterberry Holly, like Southern Gentleman, looks great on their own as a landscaping workhorse, plus a single male shrub pollinates up to 10 female Winterberry plants.
Try an orange-fruited Little Goblin® Orange Winterberry Holly and its male pollinator, Little Goblin® Guy.
You'll love the dark green leaves of Winter Red Holly or the light green leaves of the Berry Heavy® Winterberry Holly.
Inkberry Holly (Ilex glabra) - Native Boxwood Alternative

One of the best Holly shrubs for landscaping, the Inkberry Holly is another native American southern and coastal species with dark black berries. Perfect as a great native Boxwood substitute!
The long, slender leaves only have small teeth at the tips of each leaf, and have a leathery texture. The leaves are green and glossy, closely resembling Boxwood, and have no spines, so try them as a native alternative to Boxwood that features every bit as much elegance.
Benefits Include:
- Mostly broadleaf evergreen species for a year-round structure
- Dioecious - need male and female plants near each other for pollination
- Toothy leaves resemble Boxwood shrubs
- Historically beneficial native Holly
- Also called Appalachian Tea or Gallberry
- Unique black berries for birds and wildlife
- Handle wet soil and rain gardens perfectly
- Hedges for privacy, screening, and foundation plantings
- Great property definition, backdrops, and light barrier plantings
Typically broadleaf evergreens, Inkberry are also known as Appalachian Tea (Indigenous Americans used the dried leaves as tea), and Gallberry. They earned their name because Civil War soldiers wrote home using the fruit as homespun ink. These are another great native plant that loves a slightly acidic soil, medium to wet soils, and full sun to part shade conditions. Adaptable to both light and heavy soils, and even tolerates wet soils well!
Try a Shamrock, Gem Box®, or Densa Inkberries for compact, low-growing, and space-saving hedges, edging, and facer plants!
Inkberry also features separate male and female shrubs, like Winterberry, and will need at least one male shrub to pollinate up to 10 female shrubs.
Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) - Low-Maintenance Native Holly

Another American native, perfect for low-maintenance landscaping, is the Yaupon Holly. Also found in the Southeastern US, these dioecious shrubs have ornamental gray bark and broadleaf evergreen foliage. While not as showy or fast-growing as typical Holly varieties, the leaves are also not spiny, and the red berries look fantastic in holiday decorations.
Features:
- American native species for sustainable gardens
- Dioecious and broadleaf evergreen Holly shrubs
- Spineless foliage & white flowers for pollinators
- Brilliant berries for winter interest & holiday decoration
- Leaves brewed into a flavorful tea have some caffeine
- Slower-growing shrubs = lower maintenance and care requirements!
- Hedges, backdrops, and year-round screening solutions
- Great landscape workhorses and easy-to-grow options
They earned their rather gross-sounding scientific name because the leaves do contain some caffeine and were prepared as tea by Indigenous Americans. When mixed with other ingredients, the tea induced vomiting for ceremonial reasons, but this was not caused by the Yaupon leaf itself. In fact, Yaupon Tea is still consumed safely today and is similar to the South American Yerba Mate (Ilex paraguariensis), and has antioxidants that may reduce inflammation and have a role in preventing chronic conditions like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
English Holly (Ilex aquifolium) - Traditional Christmas Holly
What is the difference between English Holly and American Holly for landscaping? Besides their native range, of course, by and large, English Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is typically smaller than American Holly but has few other differences.
English Holly features the same marvelously distinctive, toothed green leaves on a broadleaf evergreen shrub and pollinator-friendly small white flowers in the spring. After all, this is the showy evergreen that develops the celebrated Christmas Holly plants with red berries, perfect for Christmas decorations! Deck your halls at Christmastime with wreaths and garlands. Or leave the berries on the bush to feed the songbirds in your area after a few freeze-and-thaw cycles.
Key Features:
- Smaller, more compact size than American Holly varieties
- Traditional spiny, toothed green leaves for a classic Holly appearance
- Broadleaf evergreen shrub for year-round structure
- Pollinator-friendly small white spring flowers
- Brilliant red berries perfect for Christmas decorations and wreaths
- Rich folklore and holiday tradition associations
- Feeds songbirds through winter months
- Bell-shaped blooms with legendary properties
- Excellent for holiday garlands and festive arrangements
- Dioecious - needs male and female plants for berry production
Sprinkle some of the bell-shaped blooms on top of a pool of water to see if the old wives' tale is true - It's said that springtime Holly flowers turn water to ice! Like many English plants, Holly has more than its fair share of legends and folklore.
Japanese Holly (Ilex crenata) - Boxwood-Like Holly Shrubs

Also known as Box Leaved Holly, Japanese Holly has Boxwood-like leaves that (usually) do not have spines and are smaller than English and American Holly varieties (both smaller leaves and smaller in size!). Like Inkberry, Japanese Holly is a dioecious plant with separate male and female shrubs that must be planted close together for pollination. That way, the black berries will develop
It features wavy, spineless, smaller, almost oval foliage instead of the pointed lobes of more 'traditional' Holly plants. The finer texture lends itself to shearing and shaping like Boxwood topiary, too! The glossy leaves create lush privacy, and many slender, more columnar forms of Japanese Holly are ideal as hedges and space-saving borders, backdrops, and property definition!
Perfect for:
- Wide range of sizes & shapes to choose from:
- Rounded, columnar, upright and pyramidal forms
- Dioecious broad-leaved evergreen shrubs for structure
- Small black fruit for birds on female shrubs
- Great garden definition, borders, edging, backdrops & low hedges
- Can be formally sheared or grown naturally, yet still look neat and tidy
- Space-saving columnar forms for along pathways, driveways, and tight spaces
- Privacy and screening year-round solutions
- Smaller varieties are great in containers and patio gardens
Try varieties such as the skinny Sky Pencil, and First Editions® Straight & Narrow® Japanese Holly for small-footprint landscape workhorses!
There are also more foliage colors available in the Japanese Holly family, including yellow-leafed forms like Drops Of Gold Japanese Holly!
Chinese Holly (Ilex cornuta) - Compact Evergreen Holly

Similar to Japanese Holly, Chinese Hollies are also broadleaf evergreens. These densely packed shrubs are naturally compact and can be kept as tidy shrubs or small trees. These natives to China and Korea have naturalized in parts of the Southeastern US.
Features:
- Dioecious - separate male and female shrubs needed for berries
- Brilliant berries for birds and holiday decorations
- Spiny broadleaf evergreen leaves - oval-shaped with pointed ends
- Little white blooms attract beneficial pollinators
- Underutilized evergreen shrub for modern landscapes
- Versatile landscape uses - hedges, definition, screening, and foundation plantings!
The tiny white blooms attract pollinators, and if a male shrub is nearby, female shrubs show off a few bright red fruits for birds and wildlife. Favorites at Nature Hills include the Carissa Holly and the fine-textured Needlepoint Holly.
Meserve Holly/Blue Holly (Ilex x meserveae) - Cold Hardy Evergreen Holly

Blue Holly, also known as Meserve Holly, has a wide range of shiny leaf forms in a soothing blue-green color, plus brilliantly hued fruit on female plants. Like Winterberry Holly, Meserve Holly needs a male pollinator to pollinate the female plants in the area for a good fruit set. Even if only growing the male plants, they are very handsome with their glossy, broadleaved evergreen foliage all year round, all on their own.
Benefits:
- Dioecious evergreens for year-round blue-green color
- Dainty white blossoms for beneficial pollinators
- Brilliant display of red fruit! Very showy fall and winter show
- Hedges, backdrops, showy foundation plantings, and privacy screens
- Spiny leaves - Good thorny deterrents for property definition and borders
- Smaller container sizes to large landscape specimens available
Try pairs like:
- Castle Wall® with Castle Spire®
- Blue Prince and its female Blue Princess
- China Girl® and China Boy® Holly combo
- Or splash out with the creamy two-tone variegated foliage of Honey Maid Holly!
Hybrid Red Holly (Oakleaf Holly) - Self-Pollinating Holly Trees

Also known as Oakleaf® or Red Holly, these hybrids are taller, often pyramidal-shaped Holly with typical Holly-leaf-shaped, deeply dissected, spiny leaves. Featuring glossy broadleaf evergreen foliage, but also orange-to-red berries in the fall, for exceptional seasonal interest!
Red Holly is different from their cousins as there is no need for a pollinator shrub planted nearby to get the fruit! However, as with any pollination situation - the more the merrier - literally. You'll get a bigger fruit set with multiple plants in proximity to each other to help spread the pollen around.
Outstanding Features:
- Broadleaf Evergreen Holly varieties with spiny foliage for security
- Hybrid plants will pollinate themselves - more fruit with more plants, though
- Showy bird-friendly fall and winter display of fruit
- Great hedges, backdrops, and foundation plants
- Standout focal points and specimen trees
- Windbreaks and snow drift barriers
- Lush privacy screening all year long
Try an Oakleaf® Red Holly or Acadiana™ Holly for impressive barrier plantings and fast-growing living deterrent hedges. Very adaptable to shearing and shaping, you can create unique topiary for your containers and garden conversation pieces!
Foster's Holly (Ilex x attenuata) is another type of Hybrid Holly that is generally self-pollinating and boasts Dahoon and American Holly parentage.
Possumhaw Holly (Ilex decidua) - Native Wildlife Holly
Another fantastic American native Holly plant is a bird-friendly powerhouse known as Possumhaw Holly (also spelled Possomhaw). Brilliant red berries and ornately toothy, oval leaves of this deciduous Holly are not only beneficial for songbirds, but also a pollinator Host Plant for many butterfly larvae too. Wildlife devours the fruit as quickly as songbirds do, but if you can steal a few branches, your interior and exterior holiday containers will benefit from the bright red fruit on bare stems. This drought-tolerant Holly can also handle wet sites and adapts to all types of tricky landscape situations.
Wildlife Garden Benefits:
- Oval deciduous foliage with toothy margins and spiny ends
- Dioecious - plant multiples for pollination success
- Big, brilliant red berries in the fall for wildlife
- Wildlife, songbird, and pollinator food sources
- Large Holly hedge plants, windbreaks, shelterbelts, and naturalized groupings
- Can be limbed up as small ornamental trees with spreading, open crowns
- Hardy native Holly can handle very moist soils and drought conditions
Get Growing Diversity With Holly Plants from Nature Hills!
While these holly shrubs may seem a bit old-fashioned, there is a good reason why they were once a landscape standard! With all the new varieties and cultivars out there, the magnificent Holly is sure to make a return to the American garden once again!
Easy to grow, long-lived, and oh-so-versatile, Holly bushes and trees will inspire you to sing their praises as so many have before you have because of their steadfast beauty and reliable performance in the landscape!
Happy Planting!