Ilex x meserveae 'LITTLE GLOSS'

Little Gloss is a very neat-looking variety of so-called blue holly. It was bred by K.Hübbers in German town Kranenburg. Its evergreen leaves are dark green, small and very glossy. Just like many other blue hollies they are not prickly, only finely serrated at margins thanks to which they are pleasant to touch. Little Gloss is a male variety not producing berries but is suitable as a pollinator for most female hollies that bear attractive fruit in autumn and winter and need a male plant nearby.

It grows slowly, naturally making a dense bush, only little pruning is needed if some branches shoot up faster than the rest of the shrub. Just cut them off from early spring until mid summer to keep the plant compact. Due to its small size this holly can make a miniature specimen in a small front yard, or can be used to create an informal, low hedge along the driveway.

Meserveae hollies are called “blue hollies” thanks to the shade of the species leaves that are dark green with bluish tint. And the name meserveae was chosen for its cultivator, Kathleen Meserve, who, literally on her windowsill, made a cross of ilex rugosa and ilex aquifolium in 1950´s to achieve excellent cold hardiness on a fabulously foliaged evergreen plant. She died in 1999 at the age of 93 but left behind an impressive line of these evergreen superbly hardy varieties.


Blue hollies need almost no maintenance if you provide them with slightly acidic soil at the beginning and enough moisture for the first couple of years to enable establishing extensive root system. They are beautiful and trouble-free dense shrubs with no defoliated twigs even without pruning. Young plants grow moderately fast until they reach about 1.5m when they slow down and begin forming a dense shrub.

Another huge advantage is its above mentioned hardiness. It can stand very low temperatures without any damage: Little Gloss has not yet been tested in all conditions but is supposed to survive -25 or even -27°C (USDA zone 5).

Last update 16-12-2010