Collected boxwoods

[tatersandonions]

Hi all,

I recently dug up a couple boxwoods from a neighbors yard.


Here they are after chopping and potting:

After a little more pruning and sloppy wiring:

Unfortunately, some of the bark was damaged digging it up. How long will it take to heal? I know boxwood branches thicken slowly so I want to keep what I have, but also need to cut down greatly.

Any ideas?

 

[Cypress187]

Nice score! I guess it will heal eventually, don't know much about boxwoods, Welcome to the Forum!.

 

[Shinjuku]

Very nice! I love boxwoods. You might consider if you want to chop the main branches even shorter. Boxwoods backbud easily, so you'll have new branches in no time.

 

[tatersandonions]

Good to know. I was planning on letting them recover for a year before chopping.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Nice score. Getting boxwoods with trunks thick enough to be called trunks is not common. Very good find.

You are in San Francisco, a climate I do not know or understand well, so I can not give you advice on timing, as I am in the greater Chicago-Milwaukee area. For me this would not have been an ideal time to collect these trees. But my climate is different.

Myself, I likely would have chopped certain branches much shorter, but if you are going to make a mistake, leaving too much is a better mistake than leaving too little. Now that you have collected these, and potted them up. It would be best to just leave them alone for the better part of a year. Or at least until they respond with vigorous growth. A little bit of growth does not count as recovered, you want vigorous growth, many buds and new leaves on every branch before you can consider the root systems recovered from collecting. It could be as little as 3 months or as long as 3 years, depending on the tree and your climate. I would guess 6 months to a year, but that is my guess, not a certainty.

Bright shade for a few weeks, then half day sun for the rest of this year. Water and a light dose of fertilizer on regular basis.

I want to say you potted these well. Every photo shows that the depth you planted them in the pot is about right, not too deep, not too shallow. You covered enough of the nebari to keep surface roots healthy. Nicely done. Many make the mistake of exposing too much of the nebari too early in development.

 

[bonhe]

Very nice material.
I also dug 3 of big boxwoods on 9/15/2016 (almost 2 years ago). They are growing well. This is one of them. The bark wound is slowly healing up ( the red arrows are pointed to the healing scar. I just took these pictures to show you.

 

[BrianBay9]

Nice score. Getting boxwoods with trunks thick enough to be called trunks is not common. Very good find.

You are in San Francisco, a climate I do not know or understand well, so I can not give you advice on timing, as I am in the greater Chicago-Milwaukee area. For me this would not have been an ideal time to collect these trees. But my climate is different......

I'd bet these will be fine. Our entire summer has had highs in the 60's and 70's F, lows in the 50's. We still have three months of growing season. It's so mild here boxwood show good growth pretty much all year - maybe a pause in Dec/Jan.

 

[tatersandonions]

Very nice material.
I also dug 3 of big boxwoods on 9/15/2016 (almost 2 years ago). They are growing well. This is one of them. The bark wound is slowly healing up ( the red arrows are pointed to the healing scar. I just took these pictures to show you.
View attachment 208576 View attachment 208577

Great! Thanks for the pictures. How are you planning on styling yours?

 

[tatersandonions]

Nice score. Getting boxwoods with trunks thick enough to be called trunks is not common. Very good find.

You are in San Francisco, a climate I do not know or understand well, so I can not give you advice on timing, as I am in the greater Chicago-Milwaukee area. For me this would not have been an ideal time to collect these trees. But my climate is different.

Myself, I likely would have chopped certain branches much shorter, but if you are going to make a mistake, leaving too much is a better mistake than leaving too little. Now that you have collected these, and potted them up. It would be best to just leave them alone for the better part of a year. Or at least until they respond with vigorous growth. A little bit of growth does not count as recovered, you want vigorous growth, many buds and new leaves on every branch before you can consider the root systems recovered from collecting. It could be as little as 3 months or as long as 3 years, depending on the tree and your climate. I would guess 6 months to a year, but that is my guess, not a certainty.

Bright shade for a few weeks, then half day sun for the rest of this year. Water and a light dose of fertilizer on regular basis.

I want to say you potted these well. Every photo shows that the depth you planted them in the pot is about right, not too deep, not too shallow. You covered enough of the nebari to keep surface roots healthy. Nicely done. Many make the mistake of exposing too much of the nebari too early in development.

Thanks for the info! I think they will be ok as our weather is mild year-round. I will let them recover until next summer at least.

 

[CWTurner]

Boxwoods backbud easily, so you'll have new branches in no time.

Yes, ready backbudders, but also slow growers. So be sure before you take a branch off.
CW