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dstevans

Looking for Mountain Holly (ilex montana)

dstevans
14 years ago

Hi,

I've been attempting to find a native plant called "Mountain Holly", ilex montana.

I live in the shadow of the Kittatinny mountain ridge, in NJ's extreme northwestern section known as the "ridge and valley" area, north of the skylands (elevation 950ft above sea level).

I have a mature overstory of oak and a dozen other deciduous trees, and a lot of spicebush, hornbeam, vaccinium (blueberry) and viburnums in 2 acres of understory, but no ilex (holly). About 6 years ago I threw some ilex opaca seeds around the forest, but I think I'm just barely too far north for the American Holly to survive (zone 5 micro-climate, although technically people say it's zone 6. The seedlings also might've become "deer food", since I frequently saw deer in that part of the forest over the years). It's also a heavy clay soil, although the forest has a well-established topsoil duff (quickly being covered and dominated by japanese stiltgrass in the sunnier areas).

A few years ago I opened up the understory, removing dozens of norway maples. The neighbor across the street has over a dozen fully mature norways, and has removed just about every native tree he owns on his property other than the scraggly roadside norways, which have been cut, chopped, and trimmed by the power company a half dozen times over the years; they look butt-ugly, reach the power lines again within 3 or 4 years of being trimmed, and they dump seedlings everywhere.

Unfortunately, one invasive replaced another, and after I removed my "norway understory", four years later I'm now dealing with an attack of garlic mustard, japanese stiltgrass, japanese barberry and multiflora rose (not even mentioning the canada thistle in the "regular" garden).

I've ripped the garlic mustard, barberry and rose out, to the best of my abilities, and I hope to include a couple (very well protected) winterberry and mountain holly plants in an open section of the moderately-sunny woodland understory, to replace (and fight) the multiflora rose. Half of my woods is on a rocky ridge (a good spot for mountain holly), and the other half is heavily-wet rocky woodlands (well-adapted for winterberry).

I plan on encasing the starter plants with mesh fencing, so that the young plants do not immediately become "deer food" in the overpopulated forest. But I need to find some plants. Anyone know where I can find some Mountain Holly (ilex montana) in NJ, PA or NY?. I'll also be going down to Virginia and North Carolina in the next week, so any recommendations down that way would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan

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