| General Description | Low ground broadleaf woody evergreen, great for horticultural use, and a low maintenance shrub. |
| ID Characteristic | Noticeable features on the Soft Touch Japanese Holly are its dark green glossy foliage with small black berries, and its dense, small shape. |
| Shape | This evergreen is dense, round, and mounded. |
| Landscape | It is commonly used for accent features, massing, specimen, border, bonsai and hedges. For restoration, it can be used for slopes and banks as it is dense, multi-stemmed and compact. It is also used for winter gardens as its berries are persistent throughout the winter season, giving it seasonal interest. Wildlife such as songbirds, bees, and other pollinators tend to enjoy the small black berries. |
| Propagation | The Soft Touch Japanese Holly is propagated depending on the type of cutting preferred, whether it’s soft wood (in summer or late fall), or hardwood (winter time when shrub is dormant). For softwood cuttings, make a 0.6 cm cut below the leaf node, for hardwood cuttings cut above or below the bud union. Once either or is completed, make a container with soil media and sand. Then, add rooting hormone on the cut end and plant in the pot. Make sure to keep the cutting moist and in indirect light. Another option is seed propagation, first remove the skin of the berries. Then, rinse the seed in cold water and plant in a big flat with soilless potting medium. Next, cover the flats with a weather protection tarp to protect from winter weather. In the spring, germinating can occur, if not then leave them through another winter. This seed propagation process can take up to 16 months to 3 years. |
| Cultivation | Ilex crenata ‘Soft Touch’ can tolerate different soil types but it prefers moist, well-drained acidic soils (less than 6.0 pH). It prefers clay, high organic matter, loam, and sandy soils. It is not drought tolerant or pollution tolerant, avoid placing it in urban settings. It prefers to be in a sheltered location. This shrub is optimal in full sun to partial shade. It is relatively pest free and disease free, however it can be susceptible to holly leaf miner, spider mites, whitefly and scale. Along with diseases such as leaf drop, leaf scorch and chlorosis. |
| Pests | Holly leaf miner, spider mites, whitefly, scale. Diseases include leaf drop, leaf scorch and chlorosis. This isn’t common as this Holly is generally pest and disease free. Deer tend to feed on the Soft Touch Japanese Holly. |
| Habitat | Horticultural origin. |
| Bark/Stem Description | The bark is dark grey and slightly greenish when older. It is described to have smooth bark. The stem colour can vary from brown-copper, grey/silver when older and green when it is the plant's growing season. The stem's surface is smooth (glabrous) and can be dense and rigid once matured. |
| Flower/Leaf Bud Description | The leaf buds are light green and under a cm of length and width (very small). The flower buds are cream, tan, or white and form in 2-3 clusters. |
| Leaf Description | The leaf colour is dark glossy green with a silver mid-vein. The leaves are simple, alternate, lanceolate, ovate, pinnate venation and serrated leaf margin. The leaves are hairless and the leaf length is 1.9 cm to 2.5 cm and the width is 0.7 cm to 0.9 cm. The leaves are described to be soft-textured. |
| Flower Description | The flowers are a cream/tan white colour, the inflorescence are a pistillate cyme. The flower petals are 2-3 rays, and 4-5 petals. The flower is 0.6 cm in length and width. The flower clusters are 1 to 3. This Holly is dioecious (this means only one sex is found on one plant, so both male and female plants have to be grown). The flowers bloom in the springtime, they are very small and not noticeable. |
| Fruit Description | The ornamental black berries are 0.6 cm in length on pollinated female plants. The berry contains four seeds. The berries grow through the winter season. The fruits are not edible and contain saponins, which is not severely poisoning but it is not recommended to ingest. The fruit type is a berry and drupe. |
| Colour Description | The foliage is a lustrous dark green with a silver mid-vein throughout all the seasons, new shoots of the shrub is a light green when new shoots arise when pruned. The bark is dark grey and a bit greenish. The berries are small and black. The blooms of this shrub are cream/tan and white. |
| Texture Description | The texture of the bark is smooth, glabrous stems, the leaves are smooth, soft and waxy. The texture does not change as the leaves stay the same throughout the seasons. |