Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. The regular species plant for Ilex vomitoria is widely variable in size – ranging from 4 feet to a towering 25 feet tall and it can be 15 feet wide. It is most attractive when you grow it as a small tree that you keep somewhat limbed up and open so you can see the very attractive, smooth gray bark on its branches.
In most cases, people enjoy planting a female so they will have the small but very numerous and showy brilliant red berries. There are few places this plant won’t grow – it is tolerant of all soils types, can take full sun or even full shade (fewer berries in that location, however,) and can take salt spray so it is highly useful to stabilize beach dunes. Its evergreen foliage combined with a propensity to sucker creates dense thickets that shelter birds and mammals.
