# American Holly, select line (Ilex opaca)

> Broadleaf evergreen screening and winter berries, from a specimen chosen for dense foliage and heavy fruit.

Also called Christmas holly, white holly. Category: Superior Specimen Lines. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-holly/

![American holly (Ilex opaca) branch in late May, glossy, spiny-toothed leaves and clusters of red berries, more holly behind](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/american-holly-2-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Facts

- Type: Medium tree
- Mature height: 20 to 50 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 9
- Grows wild in: The forest understory, rich moist slopes and floodplain forests
- Native range: 25 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC)). Also recorded, not native, in [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL)
- Sun: Full, Part, Shade
- Soil moisture: Average
- Growth rate: Slow
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Berries, September to February
- First crop: 3 to 9 years (first flowers)
- Mature spread: 40 ft
- Traits: Evergreen, Wildlife value, Hedge or screen, Tolerates shade, Winter interest, Street tree, Salt tolerant
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

American holly is the native evergreen for the eastern states: dense, pyramidal, shade tolerant and beloved by winter birds. Seedlings vary widely in leaf gloss and berry set, which is why we collect from one outstanding parent tree. Plant a male within a few hundred feet for fruit. Hardy well into zone 5 with shelter from winter wind. With its lower limbs removed, it serves as a street tree and fits a planting strip 3 to 4 feet wide. Plant it as a year-round privacy screen or a dark evergreen backdrop for a woodland garden.

## Size, growth and what to expect

How fast American holly grows depends on care. One measured tree made just 6 feet of height in 16 years under medium shade, while another reached 22 feet at age 10 after nine years of mowing, mulching and fertilizing. Our growth estimator takes the cautious view and models it as a slow grower, about a foot a year in its youth on an average site. Mature trees on sandy coastal sites stand 15 to 30 feet, and older trees on better ground reach 50 feet, with a crown 18 to 40 feet wide. Trees live 100 years, or 150 at best. The oldest holly in one New Jersey forest was 144 years old. The ages of only a tiny share of trees are ever measured, so older ones may exist.

Seedlings first flower between ages 3 and 9, and only the females carry berries. Seed is abundant nearly every year. The berries run a quarter to half an inch across and hang from September into winter, and at least 18 kinds of birds eat them, including mourning doves and cedar waxwings. The Pilgrims saw in it the English holly of their Christmas customs, hence Christmas holly.

It grows wild from Massachusetts south to central Florida and west to eastern Texas and southeastern Missouri.

## How to grow American Holly

American holly grows in full sun, part shade or deep shade. It wants an average, well-drained soil on the acid side and resents standing water. In the colder half of its range, shelter it from winter wind and sun, which brown the leaves. Mature trees carry a pyramidal crown, so set it 15 feet from walls and other trees. Set trees 15 feet apart for a screen.

Saplings ship potted. Because it is a broadleaf evergreen, holly establishes best planted in spring or early fall with its root ball intact. Dig a hole two or three times wider than the root ball and no deeper, tease out any circling roots, and set the root flare at grade. Backfill with the native soil and mulch a wide ring, kept off the trunk. Seed has a deep dormancy. Clean it from the berries and sow it outdoors in fall, a quarter inch deep under mulch. Seedlings come up in the second or even the third spring.

Water every week through the first summer and into fall. Deer browse young hollies in hard winters, so cage the plant until it is above head height. Holly needs no pruning.

Holly is dioecious. Only females bear berries, and they need a male nearby, so plant several seedlings or add a known male. Old leaves drop each spring; that is normal. Eating the berries can make a person mildly ill.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: American holly](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/american-holly)
- [The Morton Arboretum: American holly](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/american-holly/)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Ilex opaca](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ilex-opaca/)
- [USDA Fire Effects Information System: Ilex opaca](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/ileopa/all.html)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet: American holly, Ilex opaca](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/factsheet/pdf/fs_ilop.pdf)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Ilex chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Ilex.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Ilex opaca](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ILOP)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: American holly, Ilex opaca](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=51)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Ilex opaca](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.132716/Ilex_opaca)
- [Go Botany (Native Plant Trust): Ilex opaca, American holly](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/ilex/opaca/)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Ilex opaca](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/ILOP)
- [USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Climate Change Tree Atlas (retired March 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20250325041545/https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/atlas/tree/resources/lhdr/lhdr_591.html)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for birds: caterpillars, fruit, mast, nests and winter cover, month by month](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-birds/index.html.md)
- [Why a tree flowers but bears no fruit: it may be a male, lack a partner nearby, or be too young](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/why-a-tree-flowers-but-never-fruits/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)

## Related

- We grow 11 other hollies (Ilex): [all of them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/index.html.md?q=ilex)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Red Mulberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/red-mulberry/index.html.md), [Florida Maple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/florida-maple/index.html.md), [Bigleaf Magnolia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bigleaf-magnolia/index.html.md) and [Slippery Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/slippery-elm/index.html.md)
- Under its canopy: [Bottlebrush Buckeye](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bottlebrush-buckeye/index.html.md), [Florida Anise](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/florida-anise/index.html.md) and [Strawberry Bush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/strawberry-bush/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Redbay](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/redbay/index.html.md), [Northern Pin Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/northern-pin-oak/index.html.md), [Hop Hornbeam](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hop-hornbeam/index.html.md) and [Cabbage Palmetto](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/cabbage-palmetto/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on American Holly, select line, add ?species=american-holly with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 5, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=american-holly&zone=5&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for American Holly, select line](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=american-holly): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=american-holly): whether American Holly, select line can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can move it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for American Holly, select line as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=american-holly (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how American Holly, select line is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=american-holly (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what American Holly, select line needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 5 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=american-holly:5
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant American Holly, select line where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=american-holly&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far American Holly, select line goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=american-holly&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months American Holly, select line flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=american-holly