It wasn’t the 125 holly trees that attracted Marianne and Doug Owen to their property along Chico Way. It was the house.

But 26 years later, they couldn’t be happier as the caretakers of Holly Vista Orchard.

“We were renting in Port Orchard and wanted to buy a house,” said Marianne. “We were looking all over with our Realtor and just couldn’t find anything. We happened across this place that was ‘For Sale by Owner.’ So we just drove up the drive and met the owner and just fell in love with the house.”

It was only after seeing the house, that the owner, Evelyn Gibbs, told them there was a holly orchard that came along with it.

“We didn’t know if we could handle that,” she said. “But Evelyn said ‘I’ll help you and I’ll teach you to make the wreaths.’”

As the story goes, the Gibbs family had run the orchard since the 1950s. At one point, there were holly trees from their property at 7655 Chico Way, north, to where Newberry Hill Road is today. It was after Evelyn’s father and husband died, she decided to sell the house and orchard.

“At first, we thought ‘what do we know about running an orchard?’ I’m a hand (physical) therapist and Doug’s a nuclear engineer,” she said. “But Evelyn was very convincing and told us we could get help from the holly growers association.”

For the first few years, Evelyn and a friend of her’s worked the Christmas season helping them make wreaths. Marianne took on the role of managing the business, while Doug was “chief pruner,” taking care of the trees year round. They named the business Holly Vista Orchard.

The early years were mostly wholesale which was the way the Gibbs had run the business. With two young children, Andrew who is now 26, and Emily, who is 23, and full time jobs, Marianne and Doug kept quite busy.

As soon as their kids were old enough, they worked in the orchard business, Andrew assisting in caring for the trees and making wreaths, Emily spent the holiday season folding boxes to use in mailing wreaths and bulk holly.

After a few years, the Owens decided to sell wreaths retail and began a mail order business.

Each year, they also open their holly business to the public from the day after Thanksgiving until a week before Christmas.

“We do that, so that our family can have that week before Christmas to just be together and not be worrying about wreaths,” Marianne said. “Our kids have given up a lot over the years because we’ve been busy with this business. That’s our way of making it up to them.”

In a barn on the property, green and variegated holly boughs are collected in wire bins. There are assembly stations each with its own mechanical wheel, where boughs are weaved into wreaths. Each is decorated with real red holly berries and each takes about 20 to 30 minutes to make.

Wreaths come in 10 inch, 16 inch and 18 inch diameters, the smaller ones used as centerpieces with candles and the larger ones are to hang on doors and windows. They range from $30 to $45.

As the years went on, both Marianne’s mother and Doug’s father helped in the business. “Grandpa Oster,” as he is called, was the inventor of the wreath-making wheel and still helps out a bit. Up until this year, Marianne’s mother would come from Montana for the season to help take care of the kids as they were growing up and fold packing boxes when needed.

The past few years, they’ve employed four to five wreath-makers; their children are in medical school and not home to help.

Most years, they sell about 300 wreaths. And some are shipped miles and states away.

“I’ve shipped a wreath to Mrs. Bundy in New York City every year since we bought the place,” said Marianne. “She lives right on Fifth Avenue by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We ship from coast to coast.”

And, even though they never planned to have a holly orchard, it’s really very fitting.

“When we first moved here from Montana, we lived on Bainbridge Island,” Marianne said. “We were on a walk and found some holly. At the time it wasn’t any big deal. But then two years later, we owned a holly farm ourselves.”

Doug, who has worked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as a nuclear engineer since the spring of 1987, finds the orchard work rewarding. He leaves some trees unpruned, so that they will grow berries, which only happens once every two years.

“I love the idea that this orchard has been here for so many years and we’ve been able to keep that going,” said Doug. “It’s hard work and it takes a lot of time. But we’ve been able to keep this place a part of the community.”

It helps them get in the holiday spirit, too.

“Throughout everything, it’s been a lot of fun,” Marianne said. “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas for us without holly.”

Holly Vista Orchard is open on weekends through Dec. 18 at 7655 Chico Way, Silverdale. Buy online at www.buyholly.com or call 360-692-8573.