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Sky Pencil HollySky Pencil Holly is a dramatic addition to the landscape
Does your garden design make you hum? Or, do you look at the layers of plantings and hear a symphony? If you want a symphony, include Ilex crenata 'Sky Pencil Holly'.
Sky Pencil Holly - a fortissimo in the gardenWhen you look at your garden, do you see the music? A planting of boxwood, perfectly manicured, may be a soothing Gregorian chant. A garden with layers of groundcovers, perennials, groupings of shrubs, ornamental grasses and ornamental trees might be a more complicated piece of music. I recently saw a preview of the new Antonio Banderas' movie Take the Lead. Maybe your garden is like the movie, ballroom dancing meets hip hop. And, listening to the music of the garden, do you hear the cymbals crashing - the fortissimo? A specimen in the landscape, Sky Pencil Holly is a perfect fortissimo. Ilex crenata 'Sky Pencil' is a conifer with a very tall narrow form and dense branching. As with other crenatas, it has soft foliage. Gardening guides state that it will mature 8-10' x 2-3' wide. Last summer in Washington D.C., I saw mature specimens at Bartholdi Park, a Smithsonian garden across from the conservatory. Until then, I did not appreciate how rugged it is. There it was in full sun, surrounded by concrete. Sky Pencil Holly can also be used to mark a garden entrance, as a screen, or in containers. In Kansas City, I have some friends that have Sky Pencil Holly in containers on the patio the majority of the year. It is a zone 6 plant and my friends feel that special care is required to help them survive in the container given our winter lows of a zone 5. To over winter, they move the containers closer to the house and wrap them in winter blankets. Planted directly in the garden, you will find Sky Pencil Holly to be a low maintenance plant. It takes well to pruning, although little is needed. As with all newly installed plants, regular watering is needed the first year to get this holly established. The United States National Arboretum is a wonderful source for additional information on the Sky Pencil Holly, including photographs. This site lists Sky Pencil hardy at zone 7 but the majority of the sources I have list it as zone 6. Click here to go to the National Arboretum site. Do you have any cymbals crashing in your garden? What plants do you like to use to make a statement? © Susan Mertz, April 2006. All rights reserved. Click on Plants and Bulbs for more articles by Susan Mertz.
The copyright of the article Sky Pencil Holly in Plants & Bulbs is owned by Susan Mertz. Permission to republish Sky Pencil Holly in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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