Buxus collecting

AJL

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Ive located a site with loads of Box trees which have naturalised and self-seeded , many 10-20 ft high , and I know I can get permission to collect some , so Im just wondering if anyone can advise on when is best time for collecting and any suggestions on how to acclimatise the wild box trees to bonsai captivity?!
They are currently growing on chalk soil and were probably planted in Victorian times as a hedge and have slowly spread by seed in a variety of shapes and sizes, so there's plenty to choose from.
 

BrianBay9

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Ive located a site with loads of Box trees which have naturalised and self-seeded , many 10-20 ft high , and I know I can get permission to collect some , so Im just wondering if anyone can advise on when is best time for collecting and any suggestions on how to acclimatise the wild box trees to bonsai captivity?!
They are currently growing on chalk soil and were probably planted in Victorian times as a hedge and have slowly spread by seed in a variety of shapes and sizes, so there's plenty to choose from.
Young-ish boxwoods are easy to collect and tough as nails. I've never tried to pull anything older than maybe 50 yrs old though. I would expect early spring to be the best time, as it is for most collecting. Some precautions - things this big/old may require a significant root ball, so be prepared to make large boxes. Don't prune paste the inner most leaves. They might bud back on bare, old wood, but then again they might not.

RockM may have more experience with really old boxwood.
 

Woocash

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I’ve only collected one mature, multi stemmed box and although it survived, only one trunk survived. It didn’t do as well as i expected for the amount of roots, but i attribute that to it’s growth rate and ability (or lack thereof) to recover quickly. I collected in very early spring at the end of a mild winter. If i got another go at an older specimen, I’d get as many roots as i can and disturb them a lot less than i did. Basically, I wouldn’t bare root at all.
 

cishepard

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I’ve collected 3 different hedge boxwoods that were 20+ years old. All had green leaves this close to the trunk, all had similar small root balls like the second photo and all seemed to not skip a beat. One was dug in late spring, two in late fall.

IMG_0126.jpegIMG_0127.jpeg
 

BrianBay9

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Yeah, but OP is talking about a 150 yr old hedge. @rockm do you have any experience with 20 ft boxwoods?
 

AJL

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Thanks for all the advice- sorry for any misunderstanding but actually Im not thinking of digging up a 150 year old hedge! LOL
As I said before ,the original box was planted in Victorian times.It was planted as an avenue about 1 mile long , ie forming 2 parallel rows of Box with a trail between them ,in the middle of a mixed woodland, because thats the kind of thing some Victorian Landed Gentry liked to do in those days!
- Im just consideringdigging a few of the hundreds of self seeded box trees spreading on nearby land,- thinking of selecting the best shaped with good nebari in the surrounding woodlands, many are10- 20ft high, and mostly are growing as single stems or multistems.
The current land owner wouldnt object to collecting a reasonable number as theyre now considered a non-native invasive on this site, but it is a long walk in and out of the site!!
I like the look of Box but do you think theyre worth the trouble, as theyre so slow growing and would take ages to get over transplanting?My previous experience with box in containers was with @1 inch growth per year - is this normal?
At age 66 I dont have too much time ( or space) so Im trying not to collect too many trees which will take me the rest of my life, looking vaguely like a half finished sticks in pots or starter bonsai!!
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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I have a 50+ year old box in a pot, I "chopped it back" some 15 years ago thinking it would grow out in a year or two. I'm still waiting for it to fill out, they are seriously slow, or rather the particular cultivar I have is very slow. You might be lucky and get a quicker growing seedling. You are thinking right though, pick out a couple, but too many slow growing trees would be a mistake.
 

BrianBay9

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Thanks for all the advice- sorry for any misunderstanding but actually Im not thinking of digging up a 150 year old hedge! LOL
As I said before ,the original box was planted in Victorian times.It was planted as an avenue about 1 mile long , ie forming 2 parallel rows of Box with a trail between them ,in the middle of a mixed woodland, because thats the kind of thing some Victorian Landed Gentry liked to do in those days!
- Im just consideringdigging a few of the hundreds of self seeded box trees spreading on nearby land,- thinking of selecting the best shaped with good nebari in the surrounding woodlands, many are10- 20ft high, and mostly are growing as single stems or multistems.
The current land owner wouldnt object to collecting a reasonable number as theyre now considered a non-native invasive on this site, but it is a long walk in and out of the site!!
I like the look of Box but do you think theyre worth the trouble, as theyre so slow growing and would take ages to get over transplanting?My previous experience with box in containers was with @1 inch growth per year - is this normal?
At age 66 I dont have too much time ( or space) so Im trying not to collect too many trees which will take me the rest of my life, looking vaguely like a half finished sticks in pots or starter bonsai!!
Sorry for my misunderstanding. They're worth collecting if you can find examples that have a decent sized trunk and good primary branch structure. As Leo notes, these are not the trees you want to use if you plan on cutting back to a bare trunk and starting primary branching over again.
 
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