Dear Neil: I planted two small Japanese yews a year ago to act as privacy screening plants. They have grown well, but I can already tell it will take too long for them to give the privacy I need. Can ...

However, my go-to tall privacy screen is Nellie R. Stevens holly. It grows to 12 to 15 feet tall and 8 or 9 feet wide with very infrequent trimming. It actually can grow even larger in Southeast and ...

Holly might not normally seem like a large enough plant to use for privacy, but that's not the case with this cultivar. Nellie Stevens holly (Ilex 'Nellie R. Stevens') can actually reach heights of 30 ...

DEAR NEIL: When should I prune my Nellie R. Stevens holly? How much can I trim it? Dear Reader: The best time to trim and reshape any evergreen shrub is late winter, a few weeks before the burst of ...

DEAR NEIL: If I wanted to grow a Nellie R. Stevens holly as a tree, how would I train it? I see nice shrubs in the nursery. What should I be looking for? Dear Reader: If you want a single-trunk tree ...

When we moved to our current house, very little landscaping had been done. In the area that now is my cottage garden, there was a hawthorn tree growing that was brushing against the south side of the ...

Dear Neil: When should I prune my Nellie R. Stevens holly? How much can I trim it? The best time to trim and reshape any evergreen shrub is late winter, a few weeks before the burst of spring growth.