Dwarf Boxwood Gunston

[rockm]

Didn't want to hijack someone else's thread, but have these photos of almost 300 year old boxwood in an old allee near me in Va. Old plantings like this are not all that uncommon (although boxwoods with this kid of character are rare) in these parts. Fifty and 100 year old boxwood hedges are pretty common at old home sites, even tract homes in the area. Old cultivated landscape material can work up into spectacular bonsai, and can even rival some of the species being collected out west for great American material. BTW the scale of the house and allee in the second photo is deceptive-- the average height of the shrubs is over 6 feet

 

[Smoke]

UNBELIEVABLE! I mean, I believe it....but wow!

 

[rockm]

I've got pictures of a dozen more just like these at this historic garden. The management been trying to decide whether to redesign the rear garden and boxwood allee to bring them back into the same shape they were in when George Mason lived there. I think they eventually decided to leave them be. There was an old plantation site (you can't swing a cat up here in No. Va. without hitting something historic) near me with boxwood imported from England in the early 1700s. The import records are still on file at the county courthouse. I managed to wheedle a thigh sized diameter four foot trunk out of the landowners. But at the time, 20 years ago or so, I had no idea how to handle it. It took two years to die, which is why I advise people to get some experience BEFORE they collect something nice.

BTW, the plant would have died at the site anyway because the old hedge it was in was being overtaken by neglect and Wisteria. The owners of the land eventually donated the site to the county (who haven't really taken any care of it) Shame though, that boxwood was pretty nice. Not nearly as twisty, gnarled and spectacular as these, but a 200 year old boxwood is a 200 year old boxwood.

 

[sorce]

you can't swing a cat up here in No. Va. without hitting something historic

Brilliance! This is fantastic!
Is it a live cat? (fully rhetorical)

Lolololol.

Sorce

 

[sorce]

Crazy awesome trees!

Old Old.

Sorce

 

[Giga]

Wow that's the craziest boxwood I've ever seen!

 

[M. Frary]

Killer! I never would have thought boxwood ever got so big.

 

[rockm]