An amateur gardener named Katherine Meserve, after moving from Manhattan to Long Island, longed for a true cold-hardy holly, She landed upon the idea of hybridizing Ilex aquifolium with I. rugosa, a hardy Japanese species. Her experiments eventually led to an entire line of cold-hard blue hollies, which was soon adopted by the commercial trade and led to a number of named cultivars between 1964 and 1973. The botanical name for these plants, Ilex x meserveae, was assigned in recognition of her contribution.