Ilex verticillata 'Winter Gold' David Geiger shooting outward like a burst

shooting outward like a burst of fireworks

technically fleshy cones rather than true fruit

glossy leaves closer to mountain laurel than to any prickly Christmas holly

'Nigra' works as a low clipped or informal hedge

Dryopteris celsa

Ilex verticillata 'Winter Gold' David Geiger shooting outward like a burstIlex verticillata is the winterberry, the native deciduous holly grown not for evergreen leaves but for the astonishing display that comes after they fall: bare gray stems packed end to end with bright fruit, lit up across the dead of winter. 'Winter Gold' plays that trick in an unexpected color, trading the usual fire engine red for warm gold blushed with soft orange pink, a glowing, gentler note against snow. Winterberry belongs to the wet places of