Big boxwood, gotta go soon!

WNC Bonsai

Omono
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So as the title indicates I have 4 big old boxwood along my house that my wife is having landscapers rip out this fall. So my question is these are probably 30-40 years old and have been regularly pruned back to a height of about 4’ and are pretty bushy as a result. So the questions is can they be successfully dug this fall? Should they be chopped back before doing so? Would it be nest to put them in boxes with pumice afterwards For recovery? Any suggestions? Also anybody in the Asheville NC area want a couple of them, its you or the dump! How about you @Bonsai Nut ?
 

Forsoothe!

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You will get the best response to hard chopping when they still have all their roots, but from the sounds of it that won't be long enough to do a lot of good. Still, I'd chop now for final architecture now and seal the wounds.
 

leatherback

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Should they be chopped back before doing so? Would it be nest to put them in boxes with pumice afterwards For recovery? Any suggestions?

Yeah, I have done pre-digging pruning of box. At the same time I did a bit of root-pruning. I was a year ahead though. In your case, I think I would go for root rpuning only, want watering near the trunk for the rest of summer.
 

WNC Bonsai

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Any photos? I wouldn't say no to a big boxwood :)


Here is a shot of the 4 of them. They were just pruned last week so are a bit shorter now. The two shots of trunks are the best 2, the others have about 4 stems each splayed out in 4 directions. I think I’ll want the darker one so the others are up for grabs. We should get a quote from the landscaper she had come out yesterday pretty soon but I don’t expect them to do any removals until September. As soon as I find out the best way to do this I probably will try to get one out and into pumice once the hottest part of the summer is over. I wish she would let me wait until spring but there is no stopping my wife once she has a plan!

BTW, there are big azaleas next to these that will be gutted too, but I don’t think they are worth the trouble.
 

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sorce

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I would hack then all the way back to "proper nexts'" now, before the fall growth push, which I'm assuming hasn't started there yet, since it hasn't here.

That fall push should be enough to survive them through winter.

Any other method lessens success rate IMO.

Sorce
 

WNC Bonsai

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OK, so I found a website that looks hopefull. The fellow said he had collected boxwoods at all times of the year and not lost a single one so we’ll see. I’ll prune a couple back to a point where they are compact but still have some foliage and keep them well watered for the next month or two and see if we get some good back budding. I still have a large wooden box made for collecting yews and a couple of bags of pumice so we’ll see how it goes.

A number of years ago at my old house in N. Virginia I moved a pair of large boxwoods by digging them up and sliding them to a new location on a piece of cardboard, they didn’t skip a beat. The good thing with them is they have very dense roots and can take a lot of pruning so hopefully with a staggered approach I will be able to get a couple out of the ground in September once the heat of the summer has passed us. I just wish my wife had made this decision back in the spring but she moves in mysterious ways.
 
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