Year-round design: Hollies make a good foundation for landscapes

One of the first questions I ask when consulting with a landscape client is "Do you want to have evergreens as the foundation for your landscape?" The response is usually quite comical. The lady usually curls up her nose and I hear a snarl under her breath. She doesn't even have to respond. I don't think she would win much money in a poker game because everyone could read what is in her hand based on her facial expressions.

I'm sure that the lady was thinking of those traditional landscapes that included spreading and upright yews, upright junipers, pfitzers and combinations of varieties of boxwoods. These images of mother's and grandmother's landscape usually turn the customer off.

One of the goals when developing a landscape design is to include foundation plants that make the landscape look good during all seasons of the year. Mother and grandmother understood that. Today we have other choices, so homeowners can have a more modern look while still having foundation plantings that look good every season of the year.

You might consider using the Meserve hollies as foundation plants for several reasons. First, the glossy green foliage provides a great backdrop for geraniums, impatiens and petunias during the summer. This green background allows you to use all colors of blooms, no matter what the color of your home.

During the winter, when most of the color in your landscape is dormant, these broadleaf evergreens keep their leaves. A winter foundation landscape shouldn't consist of lots of sticks from deciduous plants that have lost their leaves.

An added bonus to most of the hollies is that they produce an abundant crop of red berries that show up against the backdrop of green foliage. You get color even in the winter. These red berries are also a source of food for your feathered friends.

My wife trims hollies around Christmas time so the foliage and berries can be used as fresh Christmas decorations in our home. This practice eliminates the need for pruning during the growing season.

I have found few pests that cause problems with hollies. Therefore, you don't need to think about annual applications of pesticides to eliminate a perennial pest problem such as bagworms.

Another advantage to the evergreen hollies is that they do well in both shade and sun. A concern of many Southeast Missouri homeowners is that part of their home's front is in the shade and part is in the sun. This allows the designer to be consistent in the look of the landscape no matter what the light regime is.

Twenty-five to 30 years ago a lot of hollies were planted in this area. Unfortunately, they froze out during some of our extremely cold winters. Today newer Meserve varieties have been bred to withstand temperatures we occasionally encounter.

One other advantage of these new holly hybrids is their sticky foliage. Usually when I mention this, the nose turns up again. But if you think about it, you will agree that this characteristic is a great deterrent against anyone who would want to break into your home through a window. If I were a burglar, I sure wouldn't wade through a sticky holly to get to the window.

If you are landscaping around the new home you just finished, or your home of 25 years, start with an evergreen foundation so that you have a finished look all year long. Consider using Meserve holly as part of that foundation for all of the reasons mentioned above.

Send your gardening and landscape questions to Paul Schnare at P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, MO 63702-0699 or by e-mail to news@semissourian.com.;