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Burford Holly -- Dwarf or not
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Posted by gregnga GA (My Page) on Thu, Sep 20, 07 at 21:33
| I bought some supposedly dwarf burford holly at an unnamed home improvement chain store. Although they are marked as dwarf, I want to make sure they really are dwarf. How can I be sure. I am going to plant them in front of my picture window and don't want them to take over the house.
Sometimes, I think things get miss marked that you buy at the home improvement stores. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Burford Holly -- Dwarf or not
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| BEWARE of the dwarf buford holly. My parents made this same mistake when I was a child and we pruned, then hacked, then chainsawed it right down to the ground. Within a couple of years it had again reached 6' high and covered up the porch. THIS IS NOT A FOUNDATION PLANT. Yes it is a dwarf, but in horticulture this only means smaller than the original. Many, many years would pass before I came to realize why we fought that plant all those years. Quite by chance I happened upon a pair of the originals planted on each side of the entrance to a farm. Now I knew. I had never before seen one. They were the size of a med. magnolia tree. I would guess the base diameter had to be 12' across and the ht probably in the range of possibly 30'. They were HUGE. I don't know the ultimate size of the dwarf, but I do know you do not want this plant in front of your window. Use one of the boxwoods. They tend to stay quite neat without much pruning. Good luck. |
RE: Burford Holly -- Dwarf or not
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My goodness! It sounds to me like Keepingon is the one who had a mis-tagged plant. What she/he is describing sounds exactly like the original burfordii.
Anyway, I have read somewhere that there is a way to tell the difference. The original burfordii will have its berries on the tips of its branches. The dwarf one's fruit forms on the inside of the branches. They are supposed to top out at 6 to 8 feet, and they are supposed to be slow growing for years. That's my experience with them, but I haven't been growing them for more than 5 to 6 years. They make a nice neat barrel shape. |
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