Ilex cassine (male) Nuccio's Nurseries In bloom the flowers seem

In bloom the flowers seem to hover against the glossy leaves like a scatter of dark red stars

One caution belongs with the beauty: like all jessamines

dense habit and dark glossy foliage

this is the form that finally made gardeners look twice at a native shrub long overlooked despite centuries of quiet usefulness

'Graniteville' carries all of that heritage in a frame built to spread rather than climb

Ilex cassine (male) Nuccio's Nurseries In bloom the flowers seemIlex cassine, the Dahoon Holly, is one of the most useful evergreen hollies of the South, an upright shrub or small tree with bright green, oval, nearly spineless leaves. Female plants carry heavy crops of small, bright red berries, but this is a male selection, grown not for fruit but as the pollen partner that lets nearby female Dahoons set that red winter display. The name cassine carries a deep history. Early naturalists took the word from