The Mahonias, or Grape Holly, are attractive plants, that are easy to grow, have evergreen leaves, bright flowers, colorful fruits that are not poisonous or injurious, and have few pests. From groundcover to low shrubs to stately background specimens, there is a Mahonia for nearly any place in the garden. The flowers are most always some shade of yellow, often fragrant, sometimes powerfully so. Berries, in clumps or pendulous clusters, are in the blue-purple-black range, and make good jelly. Foliage is leathery, pinnate, spiny to one degree or another, often red-tinted when young, and sometimes coloring purple-red in winter,

For the very smallest groundcover type, look for M. repens (Creeping Mahoni), a suckering form only 12 inches tall that's very tough. A bit bigger, to 18 inches, with shinier, longer leaves, and also a spring to early summer bloomer, is M. nervosa (Cascades Mahonia). Taller again, 4 to 6 feet or so, also suckering into thickets of stems and blooming May-June, is M. aquifolium (Oregon Grape).