Dear Meg and Elizabeth
D'y know it didn't occur to me that some people
might not have seen holly trees. I'm used to seeing
them. There is a thirty foot high holly tree in the
Burton upon Stather churchyard growing alongside
one of the yew trees of a similar height.
There were two equally tall holly trees growing in
the churchyard in the village where I spent my youth.
They were obviously trees but we choirboys always
called them holly bushes.
One reason that I remember them so well is because the
initiation ceremony for new (and small) choirboys
involved being swung by the arms and legs between
two big choirboys (whose voices hadn't got long to
go!) and hurled into a holly tree! Another reason is
because those holly trees provided good hiding places
for choir boys playing hide and seek in the churchyard
after choir practice. Seekers tended not to like the
prickles so could be relied upon not to penetrate far
into the gloomy interior near the bole.
Ron Hornsby
Burton upon Stather
----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Whitaker <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 02:57
Subject: Re: Yew trees
> [log in to unmask] wrote:
> >
> > isn't holly also evergreen? It certainly has red berries. And the
> > Christmas carol suggests that there were holly trees, not just
> > bushes, in England.
> > Meg
>
> It's quite possible to make a holly bush a holly tree: don't
> trim the top
> of it. I've seen untrimmed holly bushes reach eight feet.
>
> It also depends on the light: if there is a low light level,
> such as moderate
> to heavy shade, a plant will become "leggy" -- that is, it
> will grow much
> faster up than sideways in order to obtain as much light as
> possible.
>
> Elizabeth Whitaker
>
>
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