Shrub · Deer-resistant
Yaupon Holly
Ilex vomitoria
Also called: Yaupon
An adaptable evergreen holly that takes sun or deep shade, wet or dry, and covers itself in translucent red berries that hold all winter for the birds. Its leaves brew North America's only native caffeinated tea.
Growing & care
Female plants bear the berries — buy in fruit to be sure. Shears well into a hedge or limbs up into a small tree. Tolerates almost any condition.
Bloom season
In bloom: Mar–Apr · Colors: white
Where to buy
Look for yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) at: native Texas nurseries, local garden centers.
Sources
Range, nomenclature, and the USDA symbol above come from the federal plant record for this species. Check it yourself:
Good for
Plant it with
Natives that pair with yaupon holly
Same conditions, same uses — species that share yaupon holly's growing requirements and belong in the same bed.
Wax Myrtle
Morella cerifera
A fast, dense, aromatic evergreen that makes an ideal privacy screen and fixes its own nitrogen.
American Beautyberry
Callicarpa americana
Grown for its show-stopping clusters of electric-purple berries in fall — a feast for mockingbirds and dozens of other birds — on a graceful arching shrub..
Crossvine
Bignonia capreolata
A vigorous semi-evergreen climber that covers a fence or arbor in orange-red trumpets in early spring — timed for the first returning hummingbirds.
Possumhaw Holly
Ilex decidua
Drops its leaves in fall to reveal branches packed with scarlet berries that glow through winter and feed cedar waxwings and robins in late season..
Coralberry
Symphoricarpos orbiculatus
A modest suckering shrub for shade that comes into its own in fall, when the arching branches string themselves with clusters of coral-pink berries the birds strip by spring..
Agarita
Berberis trifoliolata
A spiny blue-grey evergreen that bees swarm in late winter and birds nest inside for protection.