By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on October 29, 2002
“Deck the halls with boughs of possumhaw, tra la la.” Yes, possumhaw! This is the holly of the Boerne area, and the females of the species decorate our roadsides during the holiday season. Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) recommends possumhaw (Ilex decidua) for early-winter planting.
Also known as possum-haw holly, this shrub or small tree is a true holly. As its scientific name indicates, possumhaw loses its leaves in the winter. The leafless limbs of the female plants, however, are covered with hundreds of small red berries. They certainly brighten a winter landscape.
When we bought the lot on which we built our house, we were happy to have a lot of liveoaks, cedar elms, Mexican persimmons, and agaritas on the property. But the first winter we spied another pretty tree growing on the open land back of our subdivision. At the time we were too ignorant of Hill Country plants to know that this striking tree with red berries was a possum-haw. Furthermore, we had no idea that they were available in the local nurseries. To make a long story short, possumhaw was the first native we transplanted to our yard.
With blind luck, we dug up a little female possumhaw bush so that when it grew to be a small tree, it began to produce red berries in the fall. Apparently our possumhaw is still close enough to a male plant somewhere out there that it is fertilized every year. The berries stay through most of the winter, until the mockingbirds decide to devour them.
We planted. that first possumhaw in a fairly shady spot. Recently we bought some more possumhaws from a nearby nursery and planted them in a sunny area in hopes that they will be more thickly covered with berries than the one planted in the shade.
Possumhaw seems to grow in shade or sun and in poor to good soils. Once established, this plant is very drought-tolerant. We haven’t watered our older possumhaw in years. It’s a great landscape plant.
Dallas landscape designer Sally Wasowski writes in her book Native Texas Plants, “I use possumhaw a lot because it’s so versatile. It’s also one of the best trees (native or otherwise) when it comes to winter color.”
Another well-known Texas landscape designer, Jill Nokes. writes in her new book that “if allowed to express its own nature, а grove of possumhaws against the edge of the woods or at the back of the property is truly wonderful.” Incidentally, Jill Nokes will sign copies of her book How to Grow Native Plants of Texas and the Southwest after she speaks at the Boerne Chapter, Native Plant Society of Texas fund-raiser on Nov. 14.
The event will start at 7 p.m. in the Boerne Convention and Community Center, 820 Adler Road. Ticket price is a $5 donation, which will benefit the Boerne Chapter of NPSOT.
Instructions for planting and care of possumhaw are available free of charge at nurseries participating in Operation NICE!: Boerne In Bloom Garden Center. Hill Country African Violets and Nursery, Where Wild Things Grow, and Barkley’s Nursery Center.
