Nellie Stevens Holly Shrub

1. Planting: Choose a planting area with full sun to partial shade (4 to 8 hours of sunlight per day). They need the sun to develop the pretty red fruits, and while Hollies have both “male” and “female” plants, Nellie Stevens is a variety that produces berries reliably without a “male” around for pollination.

To plant your Nellie (be sure to wear gloves), dig a hole as deep as the tree’s root ball and twice as wide. Remove the tree from the container and place in the hole (this is where the gloves come in handy) If the tree’s root ball is situated lower than the surrounding soil, pick up the tree and add some more soil to the hole.

Fill in around the tree with a 50/50 blend of the native soil you removed from the planting hole and a mixture of gardening soil. Mulch around your tree with shredded hardwood or pine straw.

2. Watering: Nellie Stevens is fairly drought tolerant. Water new trees twice a week for the first two months. After two months, water once a week up until six months. At that time, the tree will be well-established and will only need extra water if it is very windy and sunny during the winter.

A good rule of thumb for watering broad-leaf evergreens (trees with wide evergreen leaves) is to water deeply (count to forty on each plant) once a week for the month before the ground typically freezes. If you have several days above 50 to 60 degrees in the winter, it doesn’t hurt to give your Nellie Stevens Holly trees a drink.

3. Pruning: Holly Trees grow tall and shapely without much pruning. If you want a bushier, rounder plant, cut off the top of the tree. This will cause buds in the interior of the tree to sprout and the tree will have a fuller look. You can also hedge or prune these trees for shape. Always cut back to a leaf to hide your pruning cuts.

4. Fertilizing: Fertilize Hollies in the spring and fall with special fertilizer made for acid-loving plants. Holly-Tone is widely used for fertilizing.