While other female blue hollies (Ilex x meserveae) can grow large, the truly dwarf cultivar named LittleOne tops out at three feet, making it the perfect holly for front yards and foundation plantings, where it can lend year-round color without blocking windows. It has a rounded shape that complements formal settings. This holly can produce vivid red berries, and its dark green foliage has a high sheen and toothed edges for added textural interest.
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Common name: LittleOne blue holly
Botanical name: Ilex x meserveae ‘MonWilde’
Exposure: Full to part sun
Flowers/fruit: Inconspicuous white flowers bloom in the spring. Like all hollies, this shrub is dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers occur on separate plants. Only the female-flowering cultivars produce berries, and they do so only if a male cultivar is nearby. LittleOne is a female blue holly that can produce copious red berries, ripening in fall and holding into winter. (See "How to grow it," below, for male hollies to pair with LittleOne.)
Foliage: This is an evergreen holly, with shiny, dark green, toothed leaves.
Size and habit: LittleOne blue holly grows as a three-foot-round ball.
Origin: Blue hollies, also known as Meserve hollies, are hybrids between two species: Ilex aquifolium and Ilex rugosa. The first blue hollies were crossed by Kathleen Meserve in the 1950s. The cultivar LittleOne ('MonWilde') is a 2024 Monrovia introduction.
How to grow it: As typical for most hollies, LittleOne blue holly prefers rich, moist, well-drained acidic soil. However, it can adapt to less-than-ideal conditions. Do provide at least partial sun to maintain compact growth. Its naturally round shape and small size eliminates the need for pruning.
LittleOne is a female holly cultivar that requires a male pollenizer in order to set berries. Options include ‘Blue Boy’, Little Rascal (‘Mondo’) and Castle Wall (‘Heckenstar’); plant one male holly per six female hollies, siting him no farther than thirty feet away. Zones 5–9.
Image courtesy of Monrovia
