TO 
LONG LIFE 
OUR CHRISTMAS GREENS! 
ELIZABETH G. BRITTON 
Secy-Treas. of the Wild Flower Preservation Society 
Honorary Curator of the New York Botanical Garden 
I ncreasing the Pleasure of Holiday Time for the Gardener by the 
Use of Living Trees—Growing Holly and Other Festal Green¬ 
ery on the Home Grounds to be Enjoyed the Year Through 
AY wreaths of Holly, long ropes of fragrant Pine, the 
glisten of Laurel, the clustered red fruits of the Winter- 
berry, and the pungent, woodsy breath of Spruce are 
all so much a part of Christmas cheer, so linked with 
bright memories of childhood, that really Christmas wouldn’t 
seem Christmas without them. And yet one of these days, if 
we don’t watch our step, we’ll have to have Christmas without 
them because there simply won’t be enough to go round. Pro¬ 
digally, year by year, we have been raking our woods for this 
festive treasure with never a thought of the morrow until ap¬ 
pallingly soon—unless some constructive precautionary mea¬ 
sures are taken—we will have killed the goose that laid the 
golden egg! 
“Somebody’s always taking the joy out of life,” now you may 
think protestingly, but a second thought will show that here lies 
a chance to actually put more joy into it—that is, if you are a 
gardener with a bit of land, little or big, over which you love to 
moil and plan. Grow your own Christmas tree, your own sprigs 
of Holly, your own fragrant Pine! It is all quite possible, feasible, 
and pleasurable whatever section of the country you live in, and 
if it happens to be South or on the California coast, add the 
flaming Poinsettia to your list. 
If the city be your home, or a suburb where land is too limited 
to admit of even a few new plant guests, it still lies within your 
power to share in the mutually profitable undertaking of keeping 
Christmas greens forever available. Buy a living tree, enjoy it 
for as many days as you please, and then don’t throw it away 
but give it to your neighbourhood playground, or school, or 
nursery, or hospital, or park to plant. There’s a far keener joy 
in conserving life than in destroying it, and few of us relish the 
knowledge that a cumulative total of six hundred years of Holly 
life is extinguished in one puny 3 x 2 x 2 ft. florist’s box! 
It is heartening to learn, however, that great organized groups 
—the National Garden Association with its eight affiliated or¬ 
ganizations, the Garden Club of America, the New England 
Society for the Preservation of Native Plants, and the Wild 
Flower Preservation Society—are now crusading for the cause of 
Christmas greens. 
T HOUGF 1 its natural range is from Maine to Florida, the 
Holly family, like many other broad-leaved evergreens, has 
some individuals which are less hardy than others; consequently 
it is advisable when securing plants for your garden to get those 
grown by the nearest local nurseryman and which have already 
proved their hardiness in your particular region. 
Since the Holly is dioecious (i.e. staminate and pistillate 
flowers are borne on separate plants) it is essential that at least 
one staminate plant be included in a group or at all events 
placed conveniently near by for the wind to do its work of 
fruitful fertilization—otherwise there 
will be no berries. 
We have learned from several of our 
correspondents that they save all their 
Holly berries and either plant them in 
pots in the house or scatter them out¬ 
doors in the country for the birds to 
eat. At the New York Botanical 
Garden we have planted the Holly in 
Get Nursery-Grown Evergreens for 
Later Planting Out 
Don't buy IVinterberry 
Don’t buy Holly wreaths 
Don’t buy Spruce trees for Christmas 
Don’t buy ropes of Laurel or Ground Pine 
198 
winter-time and forced it the first winter with artificial heat, 
keeping it in pots the second winter in coldframes and setting it 
out the second year when it begins to send out branches below, 
and attains a height of about three feet in three years. 
Mrs. Farrand suggests (page 267, Bulletin of The Garden 
Club of America, May, 1922) that we use more tubbed or potted 
trees of Holly and there are a number of substitutes which may 
be had by the discriminating. Small evergreens in pots, Ardisia 
crenulata with its bright red berries, the Jerusalem Cherry 
(Solanum Pseudo-capsicum), dwarf Orange trees, and the Poin¬ 
settia or Mexican flame-leaf are all excellent substitutes; and 
artificial imitations of the last may be had in a variety of styles 
and prices, as it is beginning to be recognized as the best and 
showiest “Christmas flower.” In Florida, at Miami, where it 
grows out-of-doors, it is a most gorgeous Christmas tree. 
Holly has practically disappeared from all points in its north¬ 
ern range within easy access of any of the larger cities. Botan¬ 
ists in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey 
all report that with the exception of a few staminate trees, which 
do not bear fruit, there is little or no Holly left in any of these 
states. In Maryland and Virginia the Holly and Laurel are 
gathered and brought tomarket largely by the negro population, 
and Maryland is the first state to recognize the danger and pass a 
law which imposes a fine of from five to twenty-five dollars or 
imprisonment for cutting Laurel, Holly, or Christmas trees from 
any private land, without the consent of the owner. 
Thirty-five extinct species of Ilex have been recorded in the 
United States, including many relatives of the Winterberry and 
Inkberry and Dahoon; the genus was widely scattered in the 
Tertiary and Cretaceous periods, from Alaska to California, 
Montana to Colorado, and in the central plains from Kansas to 
Louisiana. It seems to have reached its maximum development 
in Colorado and New Jersey. Since the genus is dying out, 
naturally all the more reason for bending our energies toward its 
conservation rather than by thoughtless depredations to acceler¬ 
ate its disappearance. 
It is true that the demand for large and expensive Christmas 
trees is diminishing and that many dealers were left with a 
surplus of them last year or had to cut off the tops in order to 
supply those wishing for smaller trees. In fact in many modern 
apartments in the larger cities there is little room for one, and 
the old custom of using Christmas trees is dying out. Happily 
the “ Community Tree,” often one that is growing in some public 
park, is taking its place. A legitimate trade in these trees will 
develop, and as the demand for smaller sizes increases, it would 
seem easy to put the growing of them on a commercial basis and 
make it possible to plant and grow them on rocky or abandoned 
land. The northern Fir (Abies balsamea), beautiful in youth 
but short-lived and so of little value for ordinary plantings, 
might well be grown for holiday 
use. 
The same is true of the Laurel, and 
the Connecticut Forestry Commission 
have already stated that it is prob¬ 
able that in the rocky and wild por¬ 
tions of the State the growing of 
Laurel would pay better than any 
other crop. 
