BOUNTIFUL 
ILEX OPACA 
Actual Photograph, Opposite. 
Ever travel miles to see perfection in something and then stumble 
over the real thing right at home? Some time ago I found a Holly—but 
let's start at the beginning. 
The crusade to save Holly in the wild in New Jersey by depriving 
ourselves of this beautiful symbol of Christmas, while praiseworthy, 
simply does not work, and our native trees are rapidly disappearing. 
The much better way of planting Hollies around our homes is des- 
tined to bring it back, and how lucky we are that while having this beau- 
tiful tree to look at all the year, we make it more attractive by pruning 
hard at Christmas! Let's see how it worked out on the tree I started to 
tell you about. ; 
BOUNTIFUL is 61 years old, 28 feet high, and 22 feet wide. Its for- 
mer owners say it has yielded the equivalent of six standard boxes of 
cut Holly annually for the last 21 years and for 20 years before that an 
average of four boxes a year. The money received has amounted to the 
amazing sum of $800.00. Remarkable, too, is the fact that BOUNTIFUL 
has never received fertilizer or cultivation of any kind. The owners know 
little or nothing about pruning and say they have never given a thought 
to tree form—have just cut the ends of the branches that were loaded with 
berries and sold to persons eager to buy. The branches that lie on the 
ground take root very easily and the owners have given away or sold 
dozens of trees, grown this way. 
The tree is the most perfect example of a compact, formal Holly I 
have ever seen. It is not down in Virginia or North Carolina but stands 
at Beverly, N. J., only a few miles from my home. And I have spent whole 
vacations seeking ‘the’ Holly! 
Hollies are easier grown than many of our so-called hardy 
evergreens. Buy nursery-grown stock, plant carefully, use Oak 
Leafmold. 
