General Plant Information (Edit)
| Plant Habit: |
Shrub
|
| Life cycle: |
Perennial
|
| Sun Requirements: |
Full Sun to Partial Shade
Partial or Dappled Shade
|
| Water Preferences: |
Wet
Wet Mesic
Mesic
|
| Soil pH Preferences: |
Strongly acid (5.1 – 5.5)
Moderately acid (5.6 – 6.0)
|
| Minimum cold hardiness: |
Zone 3 -40 °C (-40 °F) to -37.2 °C (-35)
|
| Maximum recommended zone: |
Zone 9b
|
| Plant Height: |
3 to 4 feet (.9-1.2 m) |
| Plant Spread: |
3 to 4 feet (.9-1.2 m) |
| Leaves: |
Deciduous
|
| Fruit: |
Showy
Edible to birds
|
| Fruiting Time: |
Late summer or early fall
|
| Flowers: |
Blooms on old wood
Blooms on new wood
Other: Female
|
| Flower Color: |
White
|
| Flower Time: |
Late spring or early summer
|
| Uses: |
Windbreak or Hedge
|
| Wildlife Attractant: |
Bees
Birds
|
| Propagation: Other methods: |
Cuttings: Tip
Other: Softwood cuttings
|
| Pollinators: |
Bees
|
| Miscellaneous: |
Dioecious
|
| Awards and Recognitions: |
Other: Holly of the Year 2010
|
- Winterberry Holly
- Black Alder
Posted by
Newyorkrita (North Shore, Long Island, NY ) on Oct 3, 2011 5:42 PM concerning plant:
Red Sprite is a smaller growing variety of Winterberry shrubs that sets really large berries. Fruit sets in the fall and turns a vivid red when ripe. Fruit then stays on plants all winter on the otherwise bare branches of this deciduous holly. It looks especially striking against the white of a winter snowfall. Like most hollies, Red Spite requires a male plant to be within pollinating distance of the females which are the only ones to set berries.
The fruit is eaten by many types of backyard songbirds. In my garden the berries are especially popular with Mockingbirds.
.
Posted by
ILPARW (southeast Pennsylvania - Zone 6b) on Dec 19, 2017 4:08 PM concerning plant:
'Red Sprite' is commonly sold at many nurseries in the Mid-Atlantic region. It is a rounded, compact female cultivar of Common Winterberry. It is slow growing and usually gets around 5 feet high and somewhat wider in landscapes. However, I once worked in a new subdivision near Coatesville, PA, a few years around a new large house that had about 8 shrubs planted around it. Unfortunately, the landscape designer did not put a male cultivar in the landscape to pollinator the females; so that, there hardly was any fruit. That person should have put about 2 either 'Jim Dandy' or 'Apollo' in the landscape with the females. These 'Red Sprite' hollies were larger than I ever saw the cultivar and they were about 8 feet high and wider in size, so they were not really compact, though they were dense.
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