Some of you may know that the owner of Oak Street Garden Shop, Billy Angell, recently moved into a new house on Euclid Avenue – quite visible to all of you who live in the area! Coming from his old house at which he’d created an extensive woodland, cutting, vegetable, and herb garden was quite a drastic change. This yard is nice and flat, but that was pretty much it. Now, if you know Billy, you also know that a nice, flat yard is one thing, but he needs a few plants out there too!
Billy’s newly planted holly hedge
He’s only been there a year or so, but already there are shrubs going in around the perimeter of his corner lot. His vision is to create a mixed border of hollies, magnolias, viburnum and wax myrtle for the outer edge, to screen the road and the back of his property His plans for the rest of the yard will unfold for all to see…and we’ll be watching!
Here are some pictures of the beginning of his new landscape: He invites any of you to come by and take a look at the shrubs he’s planted so far, many of which we have in stock now. These include:
Southern Wax Myrtle: This is a beautiful screening shrub. He’s using this on the back and side of his property to compliment the neighbor’s already large wax myrtle hedge. The only warning about wax myrtle is that the stems are brittle and they will break if we get heavy, wet snow (Rare, but it could happen!) You also need to be aware that they do sucker, so if you don’t want them to spread, remove suckers as they form.
The neighbors established wax myrtles show the size Billy’s will get…
Hollies: These are large, and will grow 20′-30′, effectively screening his property from the busy road. They are drought resistant once established and are a haven for wildlife, creating nesting sites, as well as food for birds.
Three of Billy’s favorite hollies planted along the streetside are ‘Nellie Stevens’, Emily Bruner’, and ‘Mary Nell’. These are all hybrids created by crossing two old hollies, Ilex cornuta and Ilex latifolia. The results are these excellent plants, bred for hardiness, berry production and growth habit.
‘Foster’ holly, is another that Billy has chosen for his landscape. This is another old holly developed by Mr. Foster, a plant breeder for Fraser’s Nursery of Birmingham many year’s ago.
‘Nellie Stevens’ hollies
All of these hollies (and more), are available now for you to try in your own landscape…Billy invites you to come by and look at his if you’d like to see what they look like as they grow.
He pointed out that we also have one ‘Miss Patricia’ holly left in stock at this time – he has used it in the border but commented that it would be beautiful in a large container.
This is a portion of Bradford Horticulture’s newsletter. Dave Bradford is a former Birmingham area extension agent. His newsletter would be a good one to sign up for if you’d like timely information for our area! (Now between Oak Street Garden Shop and the Boxwood Doctor, you should be covered!) 
