be added a hundred and one practices proven 
O.K. for growing other plants that are taboo for 
Holly. All this seems to make it harder for those 
who know a lot about horticulture and explains 
why my clients who are “green” about such 
things often have the best luck with Holly. Suc- 
cess with Holly comes only when one is willing 
to put aside almost all hard earned horticultural 
knowledge and start anew with Mother Nature 
as guide and teacher. 
FATE INTERVENES 
I want to tell you a little about my early work 
with Holly. This means going back more than fifty 
years to the time when father said I was only 
“knee high to a grasshopper.” It would seem that 
the hard work I put in, coupled with my love for 
Holly, should have brought success, but for years 
I made little progress although I contacted nearby 
Experiment Stations and bothered two or three 
well-known horticulturists half to death. I faith- 
fully followed the suggestions of all who would 
listen to me until finally it seemed useless to waste 
more time. I took a trip to Maine to get away from 
it all, but somehow the unexpected happened and 
although I started out with the thought of running 
away from Holly, I actually almost ran into it. 
I like to think that each of us, to a great extent, 
make our own way in this world, but sometimes 
Fate intervenes. It would seem that Fate must 
have had a hand in my electing to stay on an 
island in Maine within a half-mile of the only 
two native Hollies along the Maine Coast. Al- 
though I have spent much time there during the 
past fifty years looking for additional Hollies 
(native) I have never found them. I have, how- 
ever, established many there and the coastal 
section of Maine is one of the regions where sales 
are increasing rapidly. 
Now, back to those two Hollies. They were 
wonderful specimens, perhaps a hundred years 
old and stood side by side in a small rocky mea- 
dow. “Aunt Lucy,” the owner, loved them more 
than anything else in this world. Folks made fun 
of Aunt Lucy and called her “queer,” but, though 
she was what we call poor, she nevertheless con- 
sidered herself rich. She never tired of telling neigh- 
bors that money was common, as everyone had 
more or less of it, but she had something better 
than money—her Hollies. When I asked about 
their care she seemed puzzled and declared that, 
AIO 
