Holly vs Beech
Holly burns and Beech grates. If there is a person and a feeling with heat in it, that is Holly. If it is everybody and everything and it never quite reaches anger, that is Beech.
Holly
Jealousy, suspicion and the hard feelings that come from feeling shut out
Beech
Intolerance, finding other people's habits and mistakes genuinely irritating
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Why they get muddled
Both put you at odds with the people around you, and both are usually kept quiet, so both accumulate. The distinction is heat and aim. Holly has a target and a temperature. Beech has neither, and simply keeps on noticing.
The differences
The temperature
Holly
Hot. You feel it in your chest, and you are often ashamed of it afterwards.
Beech
Cool and constant. Annoyance rather than anger.
Who it is aimed at
Holly
A person, usually a specific one, and usually about something they have that you do not.
Beech
Everyone, in small ways. The chewing, the apostrophe, the reply to all.
What is underneath
Holly
An ache. The sense of being outside something warm that other people are inside of.
Beech
Perception. You genuinely do notice what other people miss.
How long it lasts
Holly
It flares and can pass, though it leaves a residue.
Beech
All afternoon, over things nobody else registered.
Which one to pick
Choose Holly if
- Somebody's good news landed badly and you are not proud of your reaction
- You are checking things you know you should not be checking
- A short reply feels like evidence of something
Choose Beech if
- Small habits go through you like a wire
- You have lost a whole afternoon to things nobody else noticed
- The world has started to feel full of people doing things wrong
What if both sound right?
A long stretch of Beech can sour into Holly once the noticing acquires a target, usually one particular person. Both are in the anger blend, and if you cannot tell which is doing the most work, two weeks with both in the bottle will usually make it obvious.
Common questions
Which one is for jealousy?
Holly. Bach put jealousy, envy and suspicion together in one remedy, along with the general prickliness where every small thing feels like a slight. Beech has no jealousy in it at all, which is often the quickest way to tell the two apart.
Is Beech just being judgmental?
That is the unkind description of it, and the remedy is chosen for yourself rather than pointed at somebody else. What Bach described is real perception that has turned automatic, so the noticing happens whether or not you want it to and costs you far more than it costs anyone you are noticing.
Where does Impatiens fit?
Impatiens is the third one in this area and it is about pace rather than people. Slow lines, slow talkers, anything taking longer than it should. If what winds you up is how long everything takes rather than how anybody is behaving, that is the one to read.
Keep narrowing
The pairs closest to this one, if neither of these two turns out to be it.
HollyvsWillow
Holly is hot and aimed at a person. Willow is cold and aimed at life in general. Jealousy against bitterness.
ImpatiensvsBeech
Impatiens is irritated by how slowly things move. Beech is irritated by how other people are. One is about speed, the other about habits.
BeechvsVine
Beech criticizes and Vine decides. If you notice everything and say nothing, that is Beech. If you notice everything and reorganize it, that is Vine.
Cherry PlumvsImpatiens
Impatiens snaps. Cherry Plum is afraid of what it might do. If the problem is the temper itself, that is Impatiens. If the problem is that you no longer trust yourself to hold it, that is Cherry Plum.
Still not sure?
Read both profiles in full, or start from the feeling and let the quiz narrow it for you.