Winterberry 'Berry Poppins'
Ilex verticillata 'FARROWBPOP' (Berry Poppins) · Aquifoliaceae
A dwarf winterberry, waist high, that carries a heavy crop of red berries on bare stems through winter.
- Size
- 3½ ft tall, 3½ ft wide
- Zones
- 3 to 9
- Light
- Full sun to part shade
- Flowers
- Early June to late June
- Pets
- Toxic (mild)
- Job in a bed
- Anchor
A bed built around winterberry 'Berry Poppins'
The planner designed this bed around winterberry 'Berry Poppins' when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) English border in zone 6, part sun. It chose the other plants from the 708 that suit those conditions, and says below why winterberry 'Berry Poppins' stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Winterberry 'Berry Poppins' × 1, white
- 2 Striped bloody cranesbill × 5, pink
- 3 Mouse-ear coreopsis 'Nana' × 23, yellow
- 4 Turtlehead 'Hot Lips' × 3, pink
- 5 Gray's sedge × 3, green
- 6 Coral bells 'Berry Smoothie' × 3, red leaves
- 7 Grecian windflower × 7, blue
- 8 Double snowdrop × 12, white
Why this plant
- The only dense clusters. The others are open bowls, daisies, spires and others. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
- Part of the bed's structure. Shrubs and grasses keep their shape when the perennials die down. So does Gray's sedge.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 3½ ft it is the tallest plant here, and the tallest close the ends of the bed, where they stand in front of nothing.
- A step in the back row. Next to Gray's sedge (2½ ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- One plant, alone. A shrub is seen as an object, and needs clear ground around it.
Why now
- In flower for three weeks. From early June to late June.
- Part of the bed's peak. With striped bloody cranesbill, mouse-ear coreopsis 'Nana' and Gray's sedge in early June: 4 kinds at once. No week has more.
Planned as an English border: 6 of the 6 groups (100%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. Mouse-ear coreopsis 'Nana' repeats along the bed to tie it together. There is more mouse-ear coreopsis 'Nana' than anything else, 23 plants in all.
The planner's own design check: 12 Excellent, 5 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where winterberry 'Berry Poppins' goes in a border
At 3½ ft it belongs at the back of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is moderately tall (3 to 4 ft).
Its job: anchor. A shrub that gives the bed permanent structure. Planted singly, as soon as the front edge is laid; everything else is arranged around it.
Half the size of ordinary winterberries, so it fits a mixed bed. It needs the male 'Mr. Poppins' nearby. Birds eat the berries in late winter, when other food is gone.
- Winter berries in a small garden
- Rain gardens
- Birds
What to plant with winterberry 'Berry Poppins'
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Virginia sweetspire: in flower together for three weeks, from early June; spires rising out of its mound; happy in the same moist soil.
- Inkberry: its dark green leaves are a setting for the flowers, before and after; tall enough (6½ ft) to stand behind it; happy in the same moist soil.
- Tufted hair grass: happy in the same moist soil.
Questions about winterberry 'Berry Poppins'
Does winterberry 'Berry Poppins' need sun or shade?
Winterberry 'Berry Poppins' grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day), part sun (4 to 6 hours of sun, including some afternoon sun) and part shade (2 to 4 hours of sun, mostly in the morning).
It wants soil that stays evenly moist, of average fertility, and a good soak in dry spells. It copes with soil that stays wet.
What zones does winterberry 'Berry Poppins' grow in?
USDA zones 3 to 9. It is hardy to zone 3, which means it survives winter nights down to about −30 °F (−34 °C).
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does winterberry 'Berry Poppins' flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers early June to late June. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 3 | Mid June to late June |
|---|---|
| Zone 4 | Mid June to late June |
| Zone 5 | Early June to late June |
| Zone 6 | Early June to late June |
| Zone 7 | Late May to mid June |
| Zone 8 | Late May to mid June |
| Zone 9 | Late May to early June |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should winterberry 'Berry Poppins' be planted?
3 ft (90 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 3½ ft (110 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 3½ ft (110 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many winterberry 'Berry Poppins' plants do I need?
At 3 ft apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 1 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 4 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 4 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as one, planted singly: it is the bed's structure, and everything else is arranged around it.
In the bed above, the planner used one in one group.
Is winterberry 'Berry Poppins' poisonous to dogs and cats?
Yes: mild toxicity to people, dogs, cats and horses. The berries and leaves cause vomiting and diarrhoea if eaten.
Rated from NC State Extension and the ASPCA. Where references disagree, the more cautious rating is used.
Is there a pet-safe plant like winterberry 'Berry Poppins'?
These come closest to doing what winterberry 'Berry Poppins' does, and no toxicity is recorded for them:
- Mock orange 'Miniature Snowflake': the same job in a bed, the same flowering time and the same colour; belongs in the middle, not at the back, 8 in shorter.
- Red twig dogwood 'Arctic Fire': the same job in a bed; 4 in wider, grown for its leaves, not its flowers.
- Mapleleaf viburnum: the same job in a bed, the same flowering time and the same colour; 16 in taller, 4 in wider.
Matched the way the planner's Swap button matches plants: the same job in a bed, then size, then flowering time.
Do deer eat winterberry 'Berry Poppins'?
Mostly not. NC State lists it as resistant to deer. No plant is proof against a hungry deer in a hard winter, but this one is low on the menu.
What flowers after winterberry 'Berry Poppins'?
Winterberry 'Berry Poppins' is over by late June. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Tufted hair grass: from late June to late August, 3 ft tall (a recorded partner).
- Bee balm: from early July to early August, 3 ft tall.
- Daylily: from late June to early August, 2½ ft tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
What does winterberry 'Berry Poppins' look like in winter?
Winterberry 'Berry Poppins' drops its leaves and stands as bare branches: it is grown for winter berries in a small garden. That is when to see its shape, and to prune it if it needs pruning.
Is winterberry 'Berry Poppins' good for bees and butterflies?
Winterberry 'Berry Poppins' is visited by pollinators, specialist bees, butterflies and songbirds.
It is a host plant: the caterpillars of henry's elfin feed on its leaves. A butterfly can only lay its eggs on its host plants, so these do more for it than any nectar flower.
It is native to the United States and Canada (this is a named variety of the native plant).
More Ilex
- Blue holly Ilex x meserveae
- Blue holly 'Blue Princess' Ilex x meserveae 'Blue Princess'
- Burford holly Ilex cornuta 'Burfordii'
- Dwarf yaupon holly Ilex vomitoria 'Nana'
- Inkberry Ilex glabra
- Inkberry 'Gem Box' Ilex glabra 'SMNIGAB17' (Gem Box)
- Inkberry 'Shamrock' Ilex glabra 'Shamrock'
- Japanese holly 'Helleri' Ilex crenata 'Helleri'
- Japanese holly 'Sky Pencil' Ilex crenata 'Sky Pencil'
- Japanese holly 'Soft Touch' Ilex crenata 'Soft Touch'
- Winterberry Ilex verticillata
- Winterberry 'Red Sprite' Ilex verticillata 'Red Sprite'
- Winterberry 'Winter Red' Ilex verticillata 'Winter Red'
In these guides
- Plants for wet soil and rain gardens
- Salt-tolerant plants for roadsides and coasts
- Deer-resistant plants for shade
- Garden plants toxic to cats
- Garden plants toxic to dogs
- Native plants for shade
- Garden plants native to Canada
- Plants for butterflies
- Plants for bees
- Plants that feed garden birds
- Shrubs under 4 feet for small gardens
- Plants for a white garden
- Host plants for the henry's elfin
Zone guides: Zone 3 · Zone 4 · Zone 5 · Zone 6 · Zone 7 · Zone 8 · Zone 9
In flower in: June
Every fact on record
- Type
- Shrub
- Size
- 3½ ft (110 cm) tall, 3½ ft (110 cm) wide
- Plant
- 3 ft (90 cm) apart
- Height class
- Moderately tall (3 to 4 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Back
- Flowers
- Early June to late June; dense clusters; white
- Leaves
- Medium texture, deciduous; dark green
- Shape
- Rounded, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 3 to 9
- Light
- Full sun, part sun, part shade
- Soil
- Average, evenly moist
- Water
- Moderate
- Feeding
- None needed
- Family
- Aquifoliaceae
- Attracts
- Pollinators, specialist bees, butterflies, songbirds
- Host plant for
- Henry's elfin
- Stands up to
- Deer, salt, wet soil
Checked against NC State Extension, ASPCA poison lists and VASCAN (plants of Canada). Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.