Question
I live in No. VA.  We have a large sized holly bush (that produces red berries) on the corner of our house. I just recently noticed that all the leaves are dead on this large bush. It seems that this happened during January and Februrary.  I broke off a branch and it appears that branches are still green inside.  I am not sure what to do or what this is. What should I do?  How should I treat this?  Thank you.

Answer
Kathleen,

I think that the Holly has succumbed to winter dessication brought on by the warm spell at the end of December and the beginning of January, then the plunge into the deep freeze of the past few weeks.

The only thing that I can recommend is to fertilize the plant heavily this spring to try to force the Holly to push out new growth.

Good luck,
Ed Gulliksen