VICTORIA – British Columbia’s holly business once was jolly. Thirty years ago, up to 50 Vancouver Island holly farms and about a dozen more in the Vancouver area flourished, supplying Canada and the U.S. with the prickly Christmas garnish.
Today, only a handful of commercial producers on the Island and one small operation run by an elderly couple in the Fraser Valley remain, according to a floral specialist with 25 years of experience.
“The holly business has fallen dramatically,” said Vince Van Randen, cut flowers manager with West Coast Floral Growers and Distributors.
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In the mid-1980s, the Surrey-based wholesaler sold about 180 10-pound boxes of holly per week starting in mid-November until Christmas.
Five years ago, it was half that.
This year, until early December, only about 30 boxes will be sent each week to shops throughout Western Canada.
At Hunter’s Holly Farm, near Lantzville on Vancouver Island, when owner Bob Blunden bought the business in 1987, he sold 11,000 pounds of holly from early November to Christmas Day.
This year, he forecasts sales of 1,000 pounds to four commercial customers compared to the 40 clients he once had. The 2.5 acre farm, started in 1949, has 256 holly trees producing 15 varieties. Blunden, 70, once hired 21 people during the two-month blitz on the green and red.
Today, there’s just him and one employee.
Why the falloff?
“Because of artificial,” Blunden said.
At Canada’s largest holly farm, the 1,200-tree Amblecote near Duncan, B.C., sales are way down from 20 years ago.
“People are using so many artificial things now,” is how co-owner Sue Johnston explained the decline.
Even B.C.’s Ministry of Agriculture, which couldn’t pinpoint how many holly farms have disappeared, concedes on its website that plastic holly has trumped natural.
Yet, with fewer orders, the holly harvest started in October on Amblecote’s 22 acres.
To keep the North America-bound holly fresh, it’s dipped in a solution containing a copper fungicide and a plant hormone, which prevents disease and leaf drop.
Near Victoria, John Harris’s Blue Haze Farm overlooks the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He’s owned the 2.6-acre property, filled with holly and fruit trees, for 20 years.
Today, he sells about 100 1.5-pound boxes to customers across Canada and the U.S.. Two decades ago, sales were double.
And Harris faces another ongoing battle, keeping fungus leaf disease at bay. Attacking the berries and leaves, the fungus turns them black. Spraying isn’t always effective and can be washed away by rain, he said.
Hungry birds, who can quickly strip a holly tree, are another problem. Fortunately the birds (robins and starlings predominantly) usually strike in January or February, after the Christmas rush.
Holly’s lustre has also been dampened by other factors.
Consumers aren’t spending as much money, or time, on Christmas decorating, Van Randen said.
“People just want to go to Costco and get a ready-made arrangement or go to Wal-Mart and get a $4.97 poinsettia,” he said. They place a few cheap plants around their home and consider the job done.
Home decorating is also trend-driven and popular designers like Thomas Hobbs and Martha Stewart have given holly the brushoff.
“The hype over holly is gone. You rarely see it on shows,” he added.
Instead, items like evergreen boughs, blueberry branches, curly willow and dried flower heads are in demand. With the decline have come stagnant prices that haven’t changed since 2000.
A quarter-pound of holly wholesales for about $2.50. Retailers resell it anywhere from $6 to $9, Van Randen said.
Blunden sells a 10-pound box of holly to wholesalers for $35. Variegated holly fetches $75 per 10-pound box.
Amblecote ships a one-pound box, regular post, for $35.
Harris’s 1.5-pound boxes start at $37.
One cost hasn’t flatlined though.
As shipping rates rise, holly sales drop, Johnston noted. One big eastern Canadian customer didn’t order this year because of shipping costs. Another in-the-red aspect is that Canada’s strong dollar has made it cheaper for wholesalers to buy Oregonian holly.
A major wholesaler decided to buy all of its holly stateside this year. Van Randen said. Last year, it bought exclusively from one Vancouver Island supplier.
As B.C.’s holly business is undercut, Van Randan laments another disappearance.
“We end up losing traditions. It’s sad in a way.”
HOLLY FACTS
• The use of holly as a symbolic winter decoration goes back in history to the Celtic peoples of Northern Europe. Celtic Christians associated the prickly holly leaves with the crown of thorns from the crucifixion and the red berries with the blood of Christ.
• Ancient Romans believed that holly warded off lightning strikes and witchcraft.
• In South America holly is used in making matte, a type of tea drink popular in Argentina.
• The wood of the holly tree is used in the manufacture of pianos to make black keys white chess pieces due to its solid and grainless appearance.
• Holly extracts have been used in folk remedies for dizziness, hypertension and even cancer for centuries. Studies from Ireland in 1998 found extracts from the roots and bark of English holly contain chemicals that look promising for the treatment of skin cancers.
• All hollies are not evergreen. There are more than 400 recorded species of holly; some are variegated.
• Holly trees can grow from two to 40 feet tall.
• In parts of England it is believed that sprigs of holly placed around a young girl’s bed on Christmas Eve will keep mischievous little goblins away from her for the year ahead.
