In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss the three types of holly and their popularity as a replacement for boxwoods.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• Two notable holly species to add for winter interest in your garden.
  • Ilex aquifolium, Common or Christmas Holly: evergreen with slightly sharp leaves and red berries on the female plants
  • Ilex verticillata, Winterberry: North American native, deciduous holly
• Honourable mention: Ilex glabra, Inkberry: An evergreen native to the Eastern US and Canada but not in Ontario. Compact with shiny leaves it could be a Boxwood replacement in areas where it is hardy.

Resources mentioned during the show

Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes.

As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. It's now available on Amazon.

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