If your Holly develops ragged and open growth you can shorten the branches so the plant has an opportunity to fill in below the cuts you made. When pruning, it is wise to do it during wintertime and prune only poorly placed, way-ward or broken branches so the plant can fill in. Sky Pencil Japanese Holly has a strong columnar shape and to maintain its form it is suggested to prune accordingly. Provide regular water and irrigate regularly – weekly, or more often in extreme heat or containers.Įstablished plants have little tolerance to drought. The more sun it receives the more compact and less open or floppy it becomes. It would enjoy being planted in full sun to partial shade especially in hot interior locales and kept out of the wind. Mulching is imperative to help keep the soil cool, keep down weeds, reduce water loss through evaporation, and help improve soil structure as it breaks down. I highly recommend using Acid Planting Mix or Azalea Camellia Mix when planting this species to help acidify your oil and to use an acid based fertilizer like Cotton Seed Meal or other acid fertilizerĪccording to label directions to help maintain acidity. It prefers to grow in a cool, slightly acid soil that is well drained. This non-traditional Holly grows best in USDA Zones 5 – 9 meaning it does well in our area and is adaptable to growing in western climates and tolerates air pollution. Like all other hollies, it does produce a berry only if it is pollinated by a compatible male (‘Sky Pencil’ is female) Holly but the berries are really small and not the main virtue of the plant. Ilex means any plant related to Ilex or Holly. However this Holly is not like your traditional Holly because it does not have sharp, spiny leaves, which is essentially the definition of what the species-‘crenata’ means but instead it has small, fine rounded teeth. Sky Pencil Japanese Holly is related to the traditional Christmas Holly that provides you red berries and dark green The main virtue this plant has is an exceedingly narrow, fastigiate form which grows in a vertical, pencil-like (hence the cultivar name) column that could be used for a narrow screening or a vertical accent. The cultivar ‘Sky Pencil’ is an introduction from the U.S. The botanical name for Sky Pencil Japanese Holly is Ilex crenata and is native to the forests, thickets, and mountain slopes of Japan, Korea, China and Eastern Russia. Its dark green mature leaves and form give the plant a formal and clean look all the time. It doesn’t need a whole lot of pruning, it grows tight, compact and columnar. This subject would be a perfect plant for this application because it is well behaved and only grows no more than 3 feet wide and as tall as 10 feet slowly, over time. By Richard Flowers, ACCNP-Green Thumb Nursery-Venturaĭo you have a difficult area in your landscape where it is between two buildings with a narrow strip of soil for planting and you want to block the view of your neighbors or something unsightly? Your choices of plant material are limited for this type of application unless you routinely prune the plant so it does not get in the way of the nearby walkway or become too overgrown and unmanageable.ĭo I have good news for you because your problem may be solved by using Sky Pencil Japanese Holly.
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