2 NEW HOLLIES— BLUE GIRL, BLUE BOY 



A Triumph in the Ilex Family 



Something new and exciting has happened with Holly, and we 

 believe you will be interested in the story behind these two new 

 varieties, Blue Girl and Blue Boy. When botanists are moved to 

 create a new botanical species, it's a good bet that something im- 

 portant is going on . . . and doubly so when the result is named 

 for the person who accomplished it. That's what has happened 

 in the case of a new species of Holly which Dr. Shin-Ying Hu of 

 the Arnold Arboretum has named Ilex X meserveae. 



It all began in 1946 when city-raised Kathleen Meserve, her 

 husband and growing children moved to an old colonial home on 

 a Long Island, N. Y. farm. Fascinated by this new country life, 

 Mrs. Meserve started to grow things. After the wartime shortages, 

 she began with a vegetable garden. 



But it was not long before Mrs. Meserve became aware of the 

 special beauty of her surroundings and most particularly of the 

 native American Holly which grows so abundantly in that area. 

 Once it caught her eye it captured her interest. An intense person 

 who believes in "becoming involved," she researched Holly. She 

 visited arboreta, nurseries and estates and began a wide and 

 varied collection of it. A natural outgrowth of collecting and 

 growing was to try breeding Holly. 



Following her initial enthusiasm for American Holly, she dis- 

 covered the more luxuriant and attractive English Holly . . . 

 only to find, as many of us who live in the Northeast have done, 

 that it is not reliably hardy through our winters nor happy through 

 our hot, sultry summers. As her goal Mrs. Meserve set out to 

 create a Holly that would be ideal for Christmas, with all of the 

 desirable qualities of the English Holly and none of its defects. 



With this in mind, she began her search for a ruggedly hardy 

 Holly to mate with the English. Eventually she found what she 

 felt might be the answer in Rugosa Holly, a small prostrate shrub 

 native to the Sakhalin Islands north of Japan. Through the 

 Arnold Arboretum she obtained seeds from which she grew her 

 own plants of Rugosa for breeding. 



Her first crosses were successful, but even so it required years 

 of evaluation, selection and still more crosses before she began 

 to approach the hybrid Christmas Holly of which she dreamed. 

 Basic to her aim were hybrids able to withstand the bitterest of 

 winter winds and chilling temperatures. 



Out of these years of effort have come two new Hollies that will 

 add grace and beauty to the American landscape — Blue Girl and 

 Blue Boy. And through the cooperation of Mrs. Meserve, it is our 

 pleasure to bring them to 

 you. As you know, it is 

 necessary to have a male 

 Holly growing nearby in 

 order to pollinate the flow- 

 ers of the female so that 

 plenty of big red berries 

 will be produced. For this 

 reason Mrs. Meserve has 

 selected Blue Boy and 

 Blue Girl, a perfect match 

 for your yard. 



Mrs. Kathleen Meserve look- 

 ing over her Hollies with a 

 keen and critical eye. 



TWO NEW UNUSUAL HOLLIES 



These two Hollies are truly rugged evergreen trees — unique in 

 their hardiness, growth characteristics and color. Their lustrous 

 dark foliage combined with purple-blue colored branches gives an 

 overall blue-green tone to the plants. They are upright growing 

 but can be trimmed to spread if you wish. Both are vigorous and 

 rapid growing for Hollies. They are widely tolerant of soils and 

 climates and will grow almost anywhere. 



BLUE GIRL. (Meserve.) Plant Pat. 2434. The female. A heavy 

 producer of bright red berries of good size. 



BLUE BOY. (Meserve.) Plant Pat. 2435. The male. Grows 

 slightly smaller than Blue Girl. 



$9 ea. — 3 or more of one kind, S8 ea. 



OFFER 150 



1 each of 



Blue Girl and 



Blue Boy 



ONLY 

 $15.50 



BLUE GIRL 



50 



