An easy to shape, slow growing and wet-soil loving Florida Native shrub! What more can you ask for? Inkberry Holly can be used as informal hedges or be grown as its own plant. They get purplish-black drupes that serve as food for birds and they are used as shelter for wildlife. Their small white flowers attract bees and other pollinators.
How to care for Inkberry Holly
Light. Full sun to partial shade. Too much shade makes it scraggly.
Water. It does best in soil that stays moist and handles occasional flooding. Once established it also survives long dry periods.
Soil and feeding. It grows naturally in acidic, sandy soil. In alkaline soil or near concrete, Soil Acidifier helps keep the soil suited to it.
Size. Usually 4 to 6 ft. It spreads by offshoots into a colony.
Pruning. Trim it to keep it bushy.
Good to know. A Florida native of flatwoods, bogs and coastal swales. Male and female flowers grow on separate plants, so plant both to get the shiny black berries. Bees visit the flowers and birds eat the berries, which are not edible for people. It has little tolerance for salt spray.
Sources: Florida Native Plant Society Plant Database: Ilex glabra · UF/IFAS Ask IFAS SG171: Inkberry, Ilex glabra
