Ilex Meserveae (Blue Holly) What To Do?

GUnit

Hi just recently purchased an ilex meserveae (blue angel) Holly tree.

Not 100% sure what to do with it. I know a picture would help, but I can't send that till later. So, in the meantime,

A - How often / what strength should this plant be watered?

B - What kind of work can/should I do? I hear that wiring and bending branches isn't super good.

What is defoilage? Will that make the leaves smaller (they are a bit big right now). Does that mean I pluck off all of the leaves?

What is leaf pruning? Is that cutting each individual leaf? That doesn't sound right.

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Cathie

Hi, love to see a picture of it when you have one. For now (and a while) forget about defoliating. That's only done when the tree's had some time to develop and you know where you want to go with it, plus I'm not sure how a holly would react (hopefully someone else does). The technique should reduce leaves, but shouldn't be done lightly. If you have a decent soil mix with lots of grit and loads of fir bark (hollies love acid) watering shouldn't be much of an issue. Don't keep it sodden all the time, but don't let it dry out much beyond the top layer as they do need more than many other trees. Leaf pruning is cutting of leaves, but doesn't have to be on an individual basis. You might do it, e.g. when you want to shape a 'lump' of foliage for your design and will thin it out by taking off as many or few leaves as you want, keeping in mind that more will likely grow to replace them, but hopefully smaller, and you can also trim the twiggy little branches they grow from to refine the lumpy look of that branch (and keep down regrowth of too many leaves).

GUnit

I see, so leaf cutting isnt cutting a leaf into 2 pieces and throwing half of the leaf out, but it's removing entire leaves, correct?

Cathie

Correct.