[FL, where spring is long-underway] Want to collect *massive* Holly(yaupon?) that's currently a 4' stand-alone bush, any tips or guesses on survival?

[SU2]

I've only got two ilex vomitoria in my whole collection, anyways there's this bush that's always had a great base (IMO, and just "great & nice looking" not "A+ stock" or anything) but I never thought I could get, anyways the property it's on is being sold and I asked the owner and got permission (just gotta put some cheap home-propagated material in-place in that corner, basically free )

The thing is that, while right now seems like a very 'ripe' time (just a bit later than I'd call optimal, at least in hindsight knowing now that no late-frosts arrived, but still fantastic time they're just waking here mine are just putting out new growth & flowers as I've no clue how to approach them lol), so my instincts here are just:

1 - aggressively cut the roots (in terms of shallow-ness, not care, am super gentle with roots and even the bark/cambium when lifting/touching trees),

2 - choose & cut a trunk-line that is likely to leave me with 0 foliage at all.....something my experiences - with (2) ilex...- have shown is fine / they back-bud pretty vigorously

3 - wait a bit before doing it, even if just til tonight, so I can go hose it down / lightly fertilize it so that it's stronger & hydrated for its 'operation' (lol)


I'm unsure whether I should place it in full, medium or no-direct sun, also unsure if wound-pasting is any more/less relevant on this species (didn't use it on the 2 puny ones I currently have, I probably use the stuff ~1/4th the time I make cuts that "could use it" and never have issue but if these are known for losing water hard through the cuts I'd definitely caulk the cuts), will be making my "trunk-line cuts" about 1-3" higher than I want my new primaries to be ie not being that conservative as these back-bud everywhere so seems wasteful to have to just remove that many more of the tree's attempts at new shoots :/

Thanks a ton for any & all advice on this guy, hoping to have him in a large mortar-mixing tub (have been saving that thing, already drilled and all ;D ) in some good substrate in the next day/days, any advice on large-ilex collecting would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks again

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

If now is your chance, cut it back hard on top, preserve as much of the roots as you can, and shift it to your property, in the ground to recover for a year.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

A couple of years ago around this time of year, my neighbor pulled a bunch of these out from around his house (yanked them out with his truck using a chain). I got three of them, they had been sitting in the hot sun on his driveway for several hours before I picked them up. I was working nights and it was a couple of days before I could pot them up, so they sat in the corner of my yard, roots covered with wet rags. I cut the roots and tops pretty hard and planted them in totes, mostly in just turface mixed with potting soil. They all made it. Here's the thread: https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/a-score-maybe.26819/

These got no special attention after their rough "collection", other than water and Miracle Grow, and pulled through, they seem to be very tough. So I think you are safe.

 

[Wee]

I will add this advice....Keep the roots under that huge trunk wet.....I let 3 of the 4 I dug a few years ago die and I'm pretty sure they just dried out under the bases.

Brian

 

[SU2]

Fantastic stuff thank you guys!!! Hoping I can do it, the client changed the "work order" and now the actual-work I have to do there (like work-work!), in the time I have before the property is to be listed, may make this a no-go, will be so pissed I have been eyeing that trunk for years and want it so badly! Based on your replies, and how plants do in FL (and how my 2 prior Ilex went), I'm 100% confident in it being worthwhile so fingers-crossed!!

@Mellow Mullet thanks for the link, am taking today off to lick-wounds and always love reading your stuff, your site is epic you put out too-much great material for me to have fully covered everything there (actually I can say the exact same thing about nebari, too, @Brian Van Fleet! So much great content, I've gone through far less of yours for the simple reason that our "species-overlap" isn't nearly as close as my species are to Mellow's so I do focus that way when reading but nebaribonsai is just tops, A+ work as well, both of your sites were useful in my finally deciding to compile my stuff somewhere, I've messed-around with Wordpress w/o getting as proficient as I've wanted and am now thinking to just make a facebook page so I can get it up - lol unintentional puns are punny - quicker, also wasn't even considering using facebook as I dislike the url in-general but after finding out whole countries use facebook so general-purpose that "internet" is roughly synonymous with "facebook", well, it just seems appropriate to use what has the widest reach- can't help but wonder if it's dumb to do only facebook though so, thankfully, I've found a client who does SEO/wordpress/etc stuff as his job and is interested in trading services/skills with me ;D )

 

[JoeH]

should be fine right now. My collecting no go time is July/August. I have zero success then in the heat of the summer. Pot it up in a big pot and let it recover in the shade, water it a couple times a day. I have tons of Ilex I have dug and kept alive, and a small pile of failures too.