holly cuttings

can anyone help me, my wife and i are moving house from where she has lived all her life and i want to take a cutting of the holly bush in the garden to plant at the new house as it has always been there and i'd like to let her take the memories with her.
i know nothing about gardening, help!

 

are there any berries?
have a look around, you may find nature has done it for you

 

I would agree with Lady Gardener - if there are still any berries left, or some self sown seedlings - that would be a good idea.

I have never taken holly cuttings, but you could try just using the heeled cutting method. Find a piece of new growth with between 2 and four sets of leaves - i.e. that grew last year - the stem will be green rather than woody. Peel the shoot gently off the stem its shooting from - so that you have the shoot, plus a small tag. Pot into a small pot - with 50/50 compost and vermiculite. Water - then cover with a polythene bag. If you can find more than one shoot, there is no reason why they can't all go into the same pot..

 

Our next door nieghbour has an holly bush well tree and I'm fed up with pulling out the new baby trees.
I don't think you will have any trouble at all getting one to grow.

 

there are no berries on tree and havent been any in time i can remember, so will have to try the cutting, thanks

 

A female Holly can take a long time time to produce berries (up to 20 yrs) but a male never will. For best results you need 1 male to every 5 female trees nearby. Cuttings are vegatitive and will preserve the sex of the original tree. Collecting berries is pot luck on what develops.

Take cuttings by all means although hardwood cuttings in Autumn would have been better. You have nothing to loose, but you may find it easier to buy a new tree with a known habit and sex.

 

As it is of very sentimental value, take several cuttings, to insure you have at least one successful one!! It would be better to have far too many, than none at all.

 

I know it may be sentimental to you but I think you would be better off buying one (as well as taking cuttings which may/may not be successful), as Frogesque says, at least you will know what your getting.