Ilex x ‘Mary Nell’

Ilex “Mary Nell” is a McDaniel evergreen holly hybrid, developed by the Tom Dodd Nursery in Alabama from three Ilex species parents: I. cornuta, is an exceptionally tough and heat-tolerant Japanese Holly, I. pernyi is a common breeding parent with lovely, neat, small foliage, and I. latifolia, or Lusterleaf Holly, is a large-leaved holly whose broad, blue-green leaves are unique and attractive. From these three parents, ‘Mary Nell’ inherits tough landscape adaptability in the southeast, beautiful large, exceptionally glossy, dark blue-green leaves, a dense, pyramidal to columnar shape, and the tendency to produce prodigious quantities of bright red fruit.