With the idea of creating a new feature to the blog, I thought I would show various garden, landscaping, plant and house plant photos and ask you what you think, do you "love it or hate it?" So, here is my first entry, a tightly pruned holly. I guess the idea behind this style of pruning is to produce a holly tree that takes on the conical form of a child's image of a Christmas tree- holly, with its red berries is a botanical decoration for the holiday and has some symbolic elements that comemorate the season. Think for a moment- love it or hate it? Or feel somewhere in between? My answer:
I am big on allowing plants to have a natural form and I don't like this holly. At best, it can look cute one month a year, but after that it has a tortured look. Let the holly be a holly and a Christmas tree be a Christmas tree. This aversion goes toward all those Disney-esque sculpted trees and shrubs called topiaries- cute at Disney or an amusement park, but silly in the home landscape (though, if some one is passionate about them go for it).
Happy gardening!
