My Christmas neea Buxifolia needs styling advice

youngsai

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So this is my latest present to myself! I paid the price of $64.99, which i think is good for a 10" diameter tree. I know nothing about this species except that they are tough as nails, but wanted to see if anyone else knows about the species in terms of my area specifically, which is central Jersey.

Also, I would like to get some styling advice, I was thinking a broom shohin, but how should I go about that big cut? there is one in the back and one on top that look lie rot is starting to set in. Also, how are they with deadwood? I'm thinking this tree would be nice with a hollow in the back, but have also heard they heal quite large wounds. Thanx, any advice is much appreciated!
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youngsai

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couple more pics

few more which show the wound on the top I need to address as well as the wound on the back I need to address, any advice would be much appreciated!
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Poink88

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Nice tree.

They love heat=full sun (even TX)...and hate cold weather. I protect mine at 50*F and lower.

Deadwood is the weakest part of this tree IMHO. Wood is comparable to ficus nerifolia, rots fast. It hardly roll over/heal as far as I can tell with my 2 year experience with it. I hope they heal though I haven't seen any sign yet.

Grows like crazy when temps are right (HOT) and will sprout everywhere when chopped. I personally cut the branches short right away and eliminate all extra growth (they love to send multiple sprouts from the same spot.
 
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Poink88

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I paid the price of $64.99, which i think is good for a 10" diameter tree.
That price is what you tell your wife. LOL

For us here, it looks more like ($71.50 + $40.00) $111.50. ;)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Massive-nee...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Sorry I was watching that same tree earlier LOL but bought a smaller and cheaper one which I plan on making a shohin out of.

I also won't call it a 10" diameter tree...more like 3" tree with 9" nebari. :)
 
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mat

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Looks like you've got a nice base to start with. I don't think I've ever seen a broom style Neea, but don't let that stop you. I don't know how well they'll do inside. They grow like crazy here, sending shoots out of everywhere even without cutting back hard. As Dario said - definitely a heat loving plant.
 

youngsai

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Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm gonna go find some info on them and get to work! Im not going to remove any of the branches but i would like to work on the wounds and wire it out. Should I wait or is it ok to do now??

Poink, thanx for clarifying that and posting the real price, fyi everyone, I paid $71.50, which is definitely greater than $65 bux. Honestly, I was lazy and just guessed $65. Thought a roundabout would be sufficient :/. Do you have any styling advice? Should I just shape up the wound or carve out a nice hollow feature? I think I 'm gonna go with hollow but wanted to see what everyone thought?
 

edprocoat

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You will need to protect the wood, it rots easily and pests such as ants seem to eat the wood. The branches take forever to thicken, even if you let them grow real long they seem to stay twiggy. Broom is about the only style I ever tried as they do not wire to well. Its a tropical and you are in New Jersey so unless you have great lighting it will slow down this time of year, do not let it get much under 50 degrees. I would let it grow out next summer and prune it in the fall, I had no luck with trying to get ramification by trimming the branches back to two sets of leaves as I do with all tropicals. Also when I removed all the leaves on a branch, trimmed past the leaves, the branch died.

ed
 
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