Ilex x meserveae 'GOLDADER' blue holly, Meserve holly - female

Goldader is a holly with glossy leaves with attractive variegation. They are deep green at the margins, grading through soft green to rich yellow in the centre. Each leaf is unique, like a painter’s original. They look similar to the aquifolium species but are narrower and the spines are not as prickly. You can often find reversed branches – with leaves entirely green. They may be easily disposed of (cut off) or left on the shrub providing a deeper green background for the more colourful ones. This variety is a female shrub producing red berries in autumn given a male pollinator nearby.

Meserveae hollies are called “blue hollies” thanks to the shade of the species leaves that are dark green with bluish tint. And the name meserveae was chosen for its cultivator, Kathleen Meserve, who, literally on her windowsill, made a cross of ilex rugosa and ilex aquifolium in 1950´s to achieve excellent cold hardiness on a fabulously foliaged evergreen plant. She died in 1999 at the age of 93 but left behind an impressive line of these evergreen superbly hardy varieties.


Blue hollies need almost no maintenance if you provide them with slightly acidic soil at the beginning and enough moisture for the first couple of years to enable establishing extensive root system. They are beautiful and trouble-free dense shrubs with no defoliated twigs even without pruning. Young plants grow moderately fast until they reach about 1.5m when they slow down and begin forming a dense shrub.

Another huge advantage is its above mentioned hardiness. It can stand very low temperatures without any damage: Goldader has not had a chance to show its borderline but is supposed to survive -27°C (USDA zone 5).

Last update 13-08-2008