BITTERSWEET 
ILEX OPACA 
See Back Cover—Actual Photograph, Colored 
In my work in Holly there comes a time each fall right in the midst 
of the busy selling season when the trees look their poorest. The berries 
turning from green to red are just an uninteresting dull mixture. Customers 
do not seem able to visualize what the tree they are interested in will 
look like a few weeks later when the berries become red. 
BITTERSWEET is unique in that it does not seem to go through this 
transition period. Its berries turn almost over night from green to orange. 
It is a magnificent Holly with heavy green foliage and berries that set 
well out on the tips of the branches. At first glance in late October it 
looks like an orange tree with miniature oranges heavily set all over it. 
In contrast with other Hollies with dull berries it is striking indeed. Dur- 
ing December the berries turn red and are among the first that the birds 
eat in the spring. 
People planting bushes and trees with berries for birds would do 
well to consider Hollies. Birds, especially cardinals, love to build in their 
branches. Sometimes in late winter I think cardinals flitting from Holly 
to Holly just outside my window give me more pleasure than the Hollies 
themselves. Scarce before I planted large Hollies, I now have plenty of 
them. You will almost certainly have them, too, if you provide Hollies 
for them to build in. Thickets of briars, their usual nesting place, are not 
pretty around the home—Hollies are. 
BITTERSWEET came from Dr. Zimmerman at Yonkers, N. Y. I believe 
he got the cutting from Massachusetts. 
Plant Hollies carefully, do not add chemical fertilizers. Use 
some cottonseed meal, plenty of Oak Leafmold and lots of water. 
