![]() ![]() Introduced by the US National Arboretum, its pencil-thin growth habit makes it perfect for small gardens. 'Sky Pencil' is a female cultivar that needs a male pollinator in order to produce fruit. ![]() Small black fruits follow the tiny white flowers in late summer and fall. Being a fanatical fan of all things dwell (website and magazine) and all things from Mid Century to Palm Springs modern, I love these plants! Oh please Gaea, give me a break on these.A very distinctive holly, Ilex crenata 'Sky Pencil' is a slow-growing, narrow, strongly columnar evergreen Japanese Holly with shiny foliage of convex, dark green leaves, which holds all year. (Knocking on wood and crossing my eyes as I type - quite a feat) This afternoon when I went out to have a little chat with them, I actually saw some new green leaves parading themselves. ![]() only about two weeks, my little sky hollies seem to be doing okay. Ergo - Home Depot 1: home gardener nil.) So far. Although Home Depot do say they will refund your money. (I am guessing not everyone that buys a plant at Home Depot that dies returns it. Must confess I have to chuckle at Home Depot sometimes, when I see hapless would be gardeners buy plants that I know jolly well are NOT going to thrive in the Miami climate, but still they carry on regardless, and the following year Home Depot casts their net and pulls in a healthy catch of dilated pupil and not so green thumb candidates once again. I bought them at Home Depot and I live in Miami. HA HA - loved the entire play all 5 acts was it? I have just planted three of these on the easement in front of my home. All I know is that none of my Sky Pencils have died since I stopped treating them like background scenery and actually started tending them. Perhaps different causes call for different solutions. In truth, I have no idea if this remedy would work on all cases of dieback. What I have found is that if I cut off the dead stems the instant I spot them, the disease does not spread to the rest of the plant. I'm sure the heat doesn't help either.īut enough about why - the important thing is to stop it. Fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and excess moisture are only some of the possibilities. And if you are an amateur gardener like me, good luck trying to figure out what those factors might be. Of course, "dieback" is not a terribly specific or helpful diagnosis, since it could be caused by any number of factors. NCSU's Plant Pathology Extension calls ilex crenata among the more disease-prone hollies, and judging from the dieback epidemic in my neighborhood (to say nothing of the plaintive queries on internet garden forums), I think they might be right. ![]() But for those of us in the south, what is more relevant is that Japanese hollies do not like heat. Hardiness reports vary I have seen it listed as zones 4-9 (highly suspect, if you ask me), 5-7, 5-8, and 6-8. It looks great as a vertical element in the garden and in containers. (What can I say? My husband loves them.)Ī cultivar of the ever-popular Japanese holly ( Ilex crenata), "Sky Pencil" grows 8 to 10 feet tall in a narrow column - no trimming needed. I myself killed two a few years ago, then promptly put in two more. This botanical tragedy in five acts has been performed countless times in my neighborhood. ![]()
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