This week, a question involving the wrong kind of plant. Sometimes, the best answer is to go another route!
Q: I planted Sky Pencil hollies for a nice, narrow and upright screen along my fence, and after one summer, several have died and only two of them on the end (closer to my shade tree in the yard) still look decent. Do I need to plant them in a shadier area?Â
A: Well, that would have helped, but the real answer is… don’t plant any more Sky Pencil hollies in North Texas. And that’s from someone who gave them an honest shot fifteen or twenty years ago.
They sound good! Narrow, upright, evergreen, and not a juniper or cedar-type texture. But they have a tough time in a North Texas summer, and even if they get some shade, are likely to grow poorly here long term for multiple reasons (heat, soil type, water pH, etc.). Having tried them when they first became popular in our region, we’ll just say it – some plants simply don’t belong in North Texas. This is one of them.
We’d recommend using a different plant in the future. ‘Scarlet Peak’ or ‘Skyline’ yaupon hollies would make an excellent substitute for Sky Pencil holly and are far easier to care for.