[My Potatoes]

The Christmas tree came down today, and the holly has been removed from its' perches, and the berries removed. They are dry and shrivelled. Based on your own experience, any suggestions on the best preparation for these prior to sowing them?

[Greengage]

They have been too long off the tree so will have inhibitors to prevent them from germinating, the best time to plant them out is ( too lazy to type ) check this out,.........
http://gardenofeaden.blogspot.ie/2011/05/how-to-grow-holly-from-seed.html

[Good guy]

The twigs make great kindling, though, so all is not lost!

[My Potatoes]

The inhibitors aren't permanent though. These degrade over time, or by leaching out. Otherwise the holly would have to rely exclusively on asexual reproduction. (Best option is to actually pick the berries before they turn red as the inhibitors haven't developed yet. But obviously that would leave for poor Christmas decorations.)

I was just wondering if any other posters had any tips from their own experiences?

As I type this I'm toasting my feed at a fire which was lit using holly and fir twigs as kindling!

[Greengage]

now ive more time.
you should collect the berries in Autumn off the plant using strong gloves (Welding gloves)
you now have two choices either plant them in shallow trays with a mixture of peat and sharp sand and cover with mesh to stop birds picking them out, if you leave over winter they should germinate the following spring.
second you can collect berries and use pestle and mortar to mash up the berries remove the seed and plant them as above this prevents the seed from activating inhibitors which prevent them germinating before they are ready.
An old trick is to make a straw rope know as a sugan place two to three berries about 1 ft apart in the rope, dig a trench place the rope in it and pee on it, magic (I kid you not)

[Sive]

Without making any comment on the "old trick" as to whether it works......it certainly deserves to (!)....all I could think, Greengage, as I was reading your post, was how on earth was that particular method ever discovered....who was that first man ( for man it must have been ) who peed into a trench and then noticed holly bushes sprouting in the spring.
I'm still chuckling at the whole picture..... !!!!

[Good guy]

Presumably, the urea will decompose to form nitrates to fuel the development of the bacteria which will rot the rope which will make humus which will enrich the soil for the young seedlings to grow in which will eventually make trees which will grow berries which some man with a full bladder will weave into a rope...........

Isn't nature wonderful?

[Good guy]

Sive, maybe, in days of yore, a woman wove a midwinter festival garland from straw and decorated it with berries. Maybe she was taken short when she later went to dispose of it in the garbage trench outside the rath?
We will never know!

[Sive]

A lovely image, good guy, and of course every human advance has its roots in some such happy accident.....

[Greengage]

Do I have to tell yea everything, It was first discovered by the Dutch scientist Herman Boerhaavein 1727
So said Wicki

[Gautama]

Put them in a sock or ideally nylon thighs. Hang this inside the cistern of a toilet. All that flushing will wash the inhibitors out of the berries. Otherwise you'll be waiting a few years.

[Gautama]

But no, sorry, not from experience.