[gardeners] Holly tree in SoCal?

Carol J. Bova (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 10 Jun 2000 22:59:52 -0700

Hi Folks,
I have a slightly odd question for you.. is it possible to have a 40'
high holly tree in Southern California?  The garden sites I checked talk
about it as a southeastern tree, but say nothing about it as a
southwestern tree.

When I bought my 1928 house in February, I was told the tree was a white
oak and endangered, and had to stay where it was. This meant I'd have to
remove a palm tree in front of it because there wasn't room for both.
There were no branches until 10-15 ft. up, so I didn't pay it much
attention. 

We finally finished moving in mid-May, and this weekend, I started
looking at the sucker growth all over the lower part of the tree to see
what I had to do to clean it up, and realized... it's no oak! (I should
have realized sooner, because there were dead spiny leaves that weren't
decomposing all over the front yard.) The leaves are only 1-1/2 inches
long by about 1 inch wide, with 12 tiny holly type spines around the
margin and one at the tip of the leaf. They are not as shiny as the
hollies I knew back East, and a little rounder. Could it be something
else I don't know about yet? 

Thanks for any input!
        Carol
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|  Carol J. Bova     bova@bovagems.com |
|         Sunland, California          |
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