Haul out the holly. Not the dusty, plastic kind that you store in a box in your attic.

No. Bring out the real stuff, and decorate your farm and home with this homegrown Christmas greenery.

Michelle DeRusha, Nebraska Statewide Arboretum communications and events coordinator, suggests Meserve Holly (ilex x meserveae) as a colorful hybrid holly that can be grown on the Great Plains and across the country. It has the spikes and the shiny leaves we have come to expect from festive holiday holly. This hybrid offers bright red berries as well.

DeRusha says holly is dioecious, meaning each individual plant has only one type of flower. The male plants have flowers producing pollen, while the females have flowers that become berries. That’s why you need to plant male and female varieties of holly, with the male the same species as the female and blooming at the same time — so you get those red berries.

Meserve holly

For Meserve, DeRusha suggests one male shrub to every three female plants. “Blue Prince” is a male cultivar that pairs well with “Blue Princess,” with both shrubs producing blue-green foliage. Meserve does best in full sun to partial shade, and it likes afternoon shade in hotter climates. The shrub can grow 6-8 feet, or even 15 feet under the right conditions.

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Winterberry holly

Winterberry holly (ilex verticillate) is another shrub that grows well in several climates. Winterberry offers bright red berries, like Meserve holly, running from late fall into winter, and birds love them. It does not, however, have the typical sharp-toothed leaf appearance of Meserve holly, but it offers purplish-green foliage that turns black and drops after the first frost.

Winterberry holly is an upright, medium-sized shrub that grows 6-10 feet. It can tolerate all kinds of soils and even poor drainage, but it does best, DeRusha says, in acidic, moist to wet soils in full sun or partial shade.

She suggests “Jim Dandy” male Winterberry to pollinate “Red Sprite” female plants.

DeRusha recommends 3 to 4 inches of mulch around holly after planting to help retain soil moisture. She says that the plants will need regular watering, especially in drought conditions, and that holly typically likes moist soils and partial shade, especially in hotter climates such as the Great Plains and Western states.

You can learn more about planting holly or other Christmas greenery on your own farm at plantnebraska.org.