Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

Paul Hetzler, Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County

As far back as I can remember—which is maybe two or three weeks on a good day—the season has begun a little earlier each year. I assume this has something to do with global warming. Back in the day, decorating for Christmas prior to Thanksgiving was unforgivable, and even then it was considered tacky to start the very next morning. Currently, however, no one complains when stores launch the retail marathon known as the “Holiday Season” by rolling out the Christmas decor right after Halloween. But maybe no one complains because we’re all too busy nursing sugar hangovers on November 1.

Retailers can be excused, I suppose, given what Mother Nature did this year. Anyone who’s traveled around the North Country this fall has probably noticed the shameless display:  splashes of brilliant berries punctuating the margins of wetlands, forest edges, fencerows and pastures. And she unveiled this riot of neon-red decorations way back in October. That’s when our native holly bushes shed their leaves, revealing their exceptionally heavy crop of berries, bright little rubies that contrast sharply with the fall landscape. When the sun is on them, you’d swear ol’ Ma Nature put a tiny electric bulb inside each red jewel.

Even though this berry-spangled shrub loses its leaves in the fall, it is a true holly in the genus Ilex, a close cousin to the evergreen English holly whose boughs we see in holiday wreaths and sprays. Known as winterberry holly or just winterberry, Ilex verticillata is native to all of eastern North America from Florida to the Arctic Circle. Depending on conditions, winterberry gets three to twelve feet tall at maturity and can grow in dry or wet soils, though it tends to spread and form thickets in wet locations.

Like all hollies, winterberry is dioecious; that is, it has separate male and female plants. The female plant produces berries as long as a male plant is nearby as a source of pollen.

Where it’s abundant (and where one has permission), winterberry can be gathered for use in decorating. You can remove up to one-quarter of the branches from a bush before it will ‘notice’ the loss the following year. The berries hold on fairly well, but gentle handling is recommended.

If you like how they look in a natural setting, you might consider planting winterberry at home. Transplanting from the wild is an option, but there are several good cultivars available commercially. ‘Winter Red’ is a favorite tall cultivar, while ‘Red Sprite’ is a shorter version. The berries of ‘Afterglow’ are orange, and those of ‘Winter Gold’ are pale pink. You’ll need one male plant for every four female to ensure berry production.

In many ways, winterberry is an ideal landscape shrub, as it has very few pests or diseases, and it transplants easily. And there would be no need to feel self-conscious that your ‘Christmas decorations’ appear before Halloween. The way things are going, it won’t be long before retailers put up their holiday bling right after Labor Day.