Micron Holly

[tmjudd1]

Does anyone have any experience with this as a Bonsai project? I just purchased one, from a nursery, in a two gallon bucket. I was very impressed with the tiny leaves and the branch structure underneath. The trunk and primary branching remind me of an old, well established oak tree! It looks as though it could make for a great bonsai project... but will it, really?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

'Micron' holly is a variety of Yaupon Holly, properly written as Ilex vomitoria 'Micron'. Note the name for your records, then you can just call it Micron.

All Yaupon Holly make decent bonsai. It should be treated as an outdoor hardy tree in the Dallas area. I personally don't have any holly bonsai, so I can't give you any tricks. Basically let it grow out, then prune back, grow out of, prune back. Repeat.

There are many threads on Yaupon Holly in BNut. Use the search functions. Looks for threads by @rockm, @Mellow Mullet and others with experience with this species. Comments about any of the Yaupon varieties will apply to 'Micron'.

 

[tmjudd1]

Mine is labeled "Ilex Vomitoria 'Gremicr' PP21168". These were sitting next to the Dwarf Yaupon Holly's, in their own separate section. I was actually after a Dwarf Yaupon, until I saw these. The leaves were much, MUCH smaller than the Dwarf Yaupons... so I grabbed one of these without giving the other Yaupons a second look.
It was a thick, bushy rascal until just now. I got rid of everything that I know I don't want, thinned it out to let the sunshine in, and opened it up so I can see what's going on inside.
This was my first visual experience with the 'lighting vs leaving' thing. The leaves on the outside, in full sun, are extremely small as compared to the leaves buried deep inside, that recieved no direct sunlight, as you can see in the photo. Those large interior leaves are about the same size of the Dwarf Yaupon's 'exterior leaves. I don't think that this is the typical Dwarf Yaupon. Perhaps it's simply a nursery trick/gimmick for marketing. Don't know. All I know is that 'this' variety caught my eye, instantly!
There's still a lot of pruning to do, but not until I've had a long time to stare at it and decide what I want to do with it.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

The name you found is a demonstration that there are several ways of naming a unique cultivar of plant. The "Ilex vomitoria 'Gremicr' PP21168 is probably the name published with a description, in a publication that meets the distribution requirements of the ICNCP (International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants) often with a herbarium specimen deposited in one of the ICNCP approved herbariums. Then this name 'Gremicr' is part of the patent application with the USA Patent Office, where the trade name 'Micron' was registered as a trademark. This is all way deep, nobody really needs to care, but either of those 2 names makes it possible to trace down the full provenance of your plant. A cultivar like 'Gremicr' can have different names in different countries, with separate trademark names for different markets. This is really important if you are selling the same cultivar in markets where the commerce is in different languages. You can then have names attractive in the language it will be marketed in, and still have a traceable provenance that allows you to get your patent fee.

It does mean you are required to pay a royalty to the patent holder if you propagate and sell pieces of this plant. Shy of opening up your own nursery, the plant police are highly unlikely to bother you. They are after the bigger commercial outfits that do their own propagating.

This ends today's deep dive into naming of cultivars. Shout ''hooray!'' if you found it meaningful.

 

[tmjudd1]

"Hip, hip Hooray!"
I googled it and found the patent on it. Here's the link, if you are interested. https://patents.justia.com/patent/PP21168