Ilex X Meserveae ‘Blue Angel’

Another great Ilex variety, and we’re firm fans of this one. Something about the iridescent, rooks-wing gleam on the fresh leaves is incredibly compelling. This one’s a female form of ‘Blue Prince’, and has slightly purplish stems and that distinctly blue tinge to the leaves. ‘Tinge’ maybe isn’t a flattering word but you get the idea. A nacreous, abalone-like gleam (ah that’s better).

Not just lovely foliage, but you’ll get pink-tinged (sorry) flowers too. These are diminutive but add a delicate frosting that softens this toothy shrub, and seeing the bees enjoy them will remind you that the berries are on their way before too long. Like all good hollies worth their salt it will bear an abundant quantity of these, crimson and shiny and precisely as they should be.

Unclipped it could reach 10ft tall and makes a solid and roughly conical hunk of evergreen architecture. It handles chopping and fussing with aplomb though and will happily be coaxed into all manner of forms like cubes and columns or clipped aloft on stilts. They throw a dramatic shadow on summer days, too.

An excellent shrub or small tree and hardy across the whole of the UK, so you won’t struggle to accommodate one (as a bearish, glimmering hunk of stately prickles) Or indeed a few (a row of jaunty topiary bobbles perhaps) wherever you may be.

Best positioned in sun or shade in any reasonably well drained soil.

N.B. When clipping several plants with the same tool, have a bucket containing a 5% bleach solution and swish your blades around for 30 seconds between plants to sterilise them. This will help avoid the chance of cross contamination of disease.

As with all woody plants, plant high, exposing as much of the taper at the base of the trunk as possible. Allowing soil to accumulate round the base of a tree can be fatal. Keep very well watered when first planted.