Other Names:  Grey's Little Leaf Yaupon Holly

Description:

Presents the smallest leaves in the species, with red tinged new growth, and a purple hue in winter; this male cultivar produces no berries; excellent maintained as a hedge; drought tolerant, but does best in evenly moist, acidic soil; salt spray tolerant

Ornamental Features

Grey's Littleleaf Yaupon Holly is primarily valued in the landscape or garden for its interestingly mounded form. It has attractive dark green evergreen foliage which emerges brick red in spring. The tiny glossy oval leaves are highly ornamental and remain dark green throughout the winter.

Landscape Attributes

Grey's Littleleaf Yaupon Holly is a dense multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a mounded form. It lends an extremely fine and delicate texture to the landscape composition which can make it a great accent feature on this basis alone.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. It is a good choice for attracting bees to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Grey's Littleleaf Yaupon Holly is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Mass Planting
• Hedges/Screening
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Grey's Littleleaf Yaupon Holly will grow to be about 10 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 10 feet. It tends to fill out right to the ground and therefore doesn't necessarily require facer plants in front, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 20 years.

This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is particular about its soil conditions, with a strong preference for rich, acidic soils, and is able to handle environmental salt. It is quite intolerant of urban pollution, therefore inner city or urban streetside plantings are best avoided, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This is a selection of a native North American species.

Grey's Littleleaf Yaupon Holly makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its height, it is often used as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.