By Harold L. Elmore Hollies love to grow in East Tennessee and East Tennesseeans love to have hollies around their homes. Most homeowners can recognize American Holly Ilex opaca, and Chinese holly Ilex cornuta, but many holly species exist incognito in our landscapes. A customer at a UTAS plant sale once expressed delight that I had hedgebushes for sale.
Hollies are so popular that several non-Ilex landscape plants include holly in their common names.
Additionally, I grow holly fern in my garden. Additional species were predicted to be found by research from the many countries throughout the world. Galle points out a serious need for continuous monographic treatment of the genus. However, when the most recent USDA map was published, it showed the boundary between Zone 6B and 7A bisecting our area. The even warmer Zone 8 covers most of the Southeast from Birmingham, Atlanta and Raleigh to the Coast.