Holly and Other Berried Shrubs for Christmas: Prices Compared

There's a reason holly has been brought indoors at midwinter for as long as anyone has written about it. Glossy green leaves and red berries when everything else is bare is about as cheerful as a garden gets in December. And November is a very good month to plant it: the soil is still warm, the rain does the watering, and a shrub planted now has all winter to settle its roots before spring.

Here's what the berried shrubs cost at the UK nurseries we track. Every price is one we saw when we checked on 8 November 2026; each plant links to its live page for today's price.

Holly: check it's a girl

The thing most people get wrong about holly is that most hollies are either male or female, and only the females carry berries, and usually only when there's a male holly somewhere nearby to pollinate them. Buy a male holly for its berries and you'll wait forever. The names don't help: 'Golden King' is a female and 'Silver Queen' is a male.

The exception worth knowing is 'J.C. van Tol', a female holly that sets berries on its own, with almost spineless leaves. If you only have room for one holly and you want berries, start there.

• Common holly (Ilex aquifolium): £9.99 at Farmyard Nurseries, £12.50 at McLarens Nurseries, £14.99 at Celtic Wildflowers (all 2-litre pots). Larger plants ran from £28.95 to £57.95 at Ornamental Trees. Seed-raised common holly is a mix of males and females, which is fine in a hedge and a gamble as a single specimen.
• Ilex 'J.C. van Tol': £12.50 at McLarens Nurseries (2 litre), £45 at Roots Plants (7.5 litre), £64 at Frank P Matthews. There's also a standard-trained lollipop tree of 'J C van Tol': £11.99 at Thompson & Morgan (pot size not given), £27.29 at Crocus (3 litre).
• Holly 'Alaska': £11.99 at Thompson & Morgan, £12.50 at McLarens Nurseries (2 litre).
• Variegated holly 'Argentea Marginata', cream-edged leaves and a female: £11.99 at Thompson & Morgan, £12.50 at McLarens Nurseries (2 litre), £46.20 at Paramount Plants (9 litre).

The pattern is clear: small hollies are cheap and fairly priced everywhere, and almost all the difference is in size. Holly is slow to get going, so a big pot buys you years.

Skimmia: red buds all winter

Skimmias are compact evergreens for shade and pots. 'Rubella' is a male, so no berries, but its clusters of dark red buds sit on the plant from autumn right through to spring flowering, which is why it fills every Christmas doorstep display.

• Skimmia japonica 'Rubella': £6.99 at Farmyard Nurseries, £14.99 at Thompson & Morgan, £18.20 at Grasslands Nursery (1.5 litre), £25 at Roots Plants (3 litre). Ten listings in all, the best covered plant in this post.
• Skimmia japonica 'Marlot': £12.50 at both McLarens Nurseries and Ashwood Nurseries (2 litre), £14.99 at Thompson & Morgan, £15.99 at Farmyard Nurseries (2 litre).

Skimmias want partial to deep shade and soil that doesn't dry out. Despite their reputation they aren't acid-lovers; yellowing leaves usually mean too much sun or a dry, thin soil, not the wrong pH.

Gaultheria, callicarpa and cotoneaster

• Gaultheria 'Big Berry': a low, creeping evergreen with large red berries, lovely in a winter pot. £8 at Golden Valley Plants (1 litre), £9.99 at Ashwood Nurseries, £14.99 at Larch Cottage Nurseries. Acid soil or ericaceous compost only.
• Callicarpa 'Profusion', the beautyberry: bare stems studded with violet berries that look almost artificial. £11.95 at both D.T. Brown and Mr Fothergill's (9cm), £12.99 at Marshalls Garden (9cm), £18.99 for a 3-litre plant at Marshalls.
• Cotoneaster horizontalis: the herringbone cotoneaster, red berries on a fan of branches against a wall, and loved by blackbirds. £9.60 at Hopes Grove Nurseries (3 litre), £11.99 at Thompson & Morgan.

Mistletoe

We'd hoped to include mistletoe, but none of the nurseries we track lists it. It's a parasite that grows on a host tree, usually apple, so it's sold cut at Christmas rather than as a plant.

Planting now

Plant shrubs bought in pots any time the ground isn't frozen or waterlogged. Dig a hole wider than the pot, not deeper, firm in, and water well even in winter. If you want to compare today's prices, each plant above links to its live page on ComparePlants. For the wider winter garden, see our guide to winter structure and interest.