I have a very large holly bush (around 20 feet) and this year I have something new going on with it. Throughout the whole bush the leaves are turning yellow. Some of the leaves have black spot but mostly just yellow. About a 1/4 of the leaves have turned yellow. Any thoughts? Kat
Are these older, inner leaves that are turning yellow? Because in that case I would guess it probably is some natural kind of shedding process, perhaps triggered by an unusually cold, wet spring, or something like that. If the yellowing is happening to younger leaves, or is concentrated in a certain area of the plant, then there might be some kind of disease or root problem involved. I've never found holly to be a very tidy-looking plant in my own garden. I grow meservae-type hybrids, and they always seem to be suffering from one thing or another, if you examine them closely. But if you stand back and squint a little, they look fine, and they keep soldiering on from year to year.
Hollies do loose their older leaves some years more than others. They turn yellow and eventually drop. If the new leaves are yellow then you do have a problem. Ray
a different Holly issue - superstition created a new thread - I have a mature GIANT multi-stem holly in the back yard of my house. It's in the middle of the yard and is about 10m or 30' tall. I did a quick search and it's bad luck in some cultures to cut down a holly tree, something about elves and faeries etc. I admit to being a little superstitious. I figure why take chances but I don't want that holly where it is. What kind of gardening superstitions have you come across? Any advice on how to mitigate any potentail bad luck? (ie. would planting another holly in a differnt location take the edge off of any bad luck?).
I see fungal leaf spots on English holly frequently. Spotted leaves yellow and drop. As Ilex aquifolium is a serious nuisance plant in this region, forming spiny thickets in parks and other wooded lands here it is just as well to cut chronically affected garden specimens down - thereby killing two birds with one stone: you rid yourself of a plant that is repeatedly marred by disease and you rid your neighborhood of specimen that may be generating quantities of unwanted seedlings (or pollinating a nearby specimen that is producing numerous fruits). In Seattle typical upper heights for English hollies are about 40', although multiple specific examples exceeding 50' are known. Globally the maximum height for the species has been listed as 80'. Registers listing big trees for specific regions will have current record heights.
