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Carolina Ruby

Making It Grow! Minute logo

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Ilex vomitoria has so many cultivars it must be a breeders dream – maybe it is easier to breed dioecious plants as you don’t have to emasculate the male flower structures.   One in particular is important to us as it was developed right here in South Carolina and it’s beautiful.

Carolina Ruby,, a female cultivar of Ilex vomitoria, yaupon, was a single seedling from hundreds that came from a a weeping form of yaupon.   Ted Stevens of Nurseries Caroliniana noticed that it was radically different from its siblings. At seven years, this plant was only three feet tall and has something like five times more berries than usually found on this species of holly. If left unpruned, the plant has a pleasing shape and only needs an occasional snip to keep it tidy. It is free from disease and pests. Ted is a South Carolinian with a world-wide reputation.

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Amanda McNulty is a Clemson University Extension Horticulture agent and the host of South Carolina ETV’s Making It Grow! gardening program. She studied horticulture at Clemson University as a non-traditional student. “I’m so fortunate that my early attempts at getting a degree got side tracked as I’m a lot better at getting dirty in the garden than practicing diplomacy!” McNulty also studied at South Carolina State University and earned a graduate degree in teaching there.