Inkberry

Size, growth and what to expect

Inkberry grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It makes an upright, rounded shrub 5 to 10 feet tall and 5 to 8 feet wide. Its roots run just under the surface and send up new stems, so over the years a plant widens into a colony.

Small, greenish white flowers open in May and June, earlier in the far South and later in New England. Bees work them for nectar. On female plants, shiny black berries about a quarter inch across ripen from September into November. They hang on through winter into early spring. At least 15 kinds of birds eat them, wild turkeys and bobwhite quail among them, and raccoons and black bears take them too. It is a host plant of the Henry's elfin butterfly.

It grows wild on the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains from Nova Scotia to southern Florida and west to eastern Texas. Its home is pine flatwoods, savannas and pine barrens, and the wetter ground of bogs, seeps and swamp edges.

How to grow Inkberry

Inkberry does best in full sun and also grows in part shade or shade. It wants an acid soil, sandy or clay, that stays moist, and it takes wet ground and occasional floods. In alkaline soil its leaves turn yellow. It is moderately salt tolerant and takes road salt, but it does not stand dry soil. Pull stray suckers, or give it room to spread. Plant it 4 feet from a wall, and set plants 5 feet apart for a hedge. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires. It is highly flammable, so in fire country keep it out of the space right around a house.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in early spring or early fall, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Holly seed is slow. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall, a quarter inch deep under mulch, and expect seedlings in the second or third spring. Indoors, keep fresh seed damp at about 60 degrees, and most of it sprouts within four months.

Water weekly through the first two summers, and in dry spells after that. Keep a mulch over the roots, which helps hold them cool. Deer browse it in fall and winter, so cage young plants where deer are many. Prune to shape in early spring, just before new growth begins. Every few years, cut a few of the oldest stems to the ground to keep the plant full.

Inkberry plants are male or female, and only females bear the black berries, so plant a group of three or more so that a male lands among the females. Leaf spot, leaf miners, scale and mites turn up, but none is usually serious. Open, windy sites can burn the leaves in winter. Eating the berries can make a person mildly ill.