My craiglist boxwood

[Alain]

Hi there,

Last year, as I was looking for a Ben ficus, @sorce suggested me to look on Craigslist, free stuff section as there were frequent announcements of trees for pick-up.
More recently I told him I really never had any luck on Craigslist, some posts of interesting stuff for sure but no one ever answered my first contact message about them.
I keep glancing at it anyway and this time someone answer and I can't believe what I got.

First you guys have to know that boxwood was on my hunting list this year. Last year Home Depot didn't have the $40-50 very interesting boxwood they had 2 years ago but this season yes they had, so I was looking closely at them.
But this!

They were 18 established boxwood available to dig last week.
When I actually went to dig on Saturday evening (I would have prefer beginning of the afternoon to have more time but the owner wasn't home and asked me to wait until 4:45 pm, well, what the Hell?) they were just 14 remaining.
I dug 4 out on Sat. evening and told the owner I couldn't come on Sunday because I had a baby shower/BBQ in Wisconsin but I already took my Monday off and will be back then to keep digging if there were more to take now that I knew where the place was. I showed them how careful of their yard I had been and they said: 'sure, no problem'.

I went back this morning and a lady was digging with and old fart helping her.
There were still at least 5 trees.
They had dig 1 out, she was working on 1, the old fart was walking around another one, they had made a shovel circle around the roots of a 4th one and there was 1 untouched remaining in between the one she was digging and the one the old fart was circling around.

I said: 'Hello, I'm here for the boxwood, are you taking them all?'
She said 'Yes'
I said something like: 'Sorry buddy but there are still 5, the owner said: first arrived first serve, you didn't even start on those 2, I'll take one'

I went back for my pitchfork in my car but then she was calling the owner already and when she saw my coming back told me:
- I call the cops!
And walked away toward my car to take the license plate.
I tried to follow up and tell her:
- My name is Potrel is that's help for the FBI warrant!
I would be so peaceful about the world we are giving to our kids if I knew that the cops of a suburb - even a nice 0ne - of a city the size of Chicago has nothing else to do that to come on call to be the referees of a free boxwood digging contest...
I put my pitchfork in my trunk and drove away.
Trees are a dependency but as I know it I will always go away before the shovel vs pitchfork fight in the yard...


Anyway here they are, my 4 Craigslist boxwood trees:

* tree # 1:


I call it 'my foot long nebari spread tree'

A little bit like a 'foot-long Subway sandwich' but better

 

[Alain]

Tree # 2:



Tree #3:

 

[Alain]

Tree # 4:





Some questions now:

- I just potted them after the severe roots pruning, should I prune some of the foliage too in order to balance the lost of roots or should I let them like that for at least some year(s) to recover?

- I only watered them and put some Miracle grow in gravel in the soil as I do with all my trees in training (so all my trees). Today was 'fertilizing day' for all my trees but I didn't give them boxwood extra-fertilizer, should I give them some (once a week of miracle grow soluble) right now as for all my other trees?

- do you know what kind of boxwood they are? (they don't look like foemina to me but I could be mistaken)

I guess for the moment that's it.



Btw: they have been hard-pruned last year so all the foliage is basically the back-budding results.

 

[sorce]

Friggin Nice!

I'd take half off em...but I never collected one like that.

Good story!

Sorce

 

[Alain]

Friggin Nice!

I'd take half off em...but I never collected one like that.

Good story!

Sorce

Thanks!
Seriously come with me this November and we'll collect some elms and/or mulberries like that

 

[Alain]

Oops!
I double posted pictures one of them but you guys are smart, you'll figure it out

 

[Soldano666]

Nice find. I have lots of good luck on craigslist at least in new Hampshire and Massachusetts everyone wants thier privets mostly but some other stuff dug up to re-landscape their yards .. I. Always on the hunt. I've convinced the last posts on cl to wait til autumn and I'll come take em all. It's a 40 year old privet row

 

[Alain]

Hey guys seriously: should I prune my trees (at least a little) to help them balance the severe roots lost or should I let them recover like that?

 

[rockm]

Looks to me like you have English Boxwood (Buxus Sempervirens "Suffruticosa") It is not all that common as bonsai material. It is one of the older varieties used in the U.S. and is close to American Boxwood (Buxus Sempervirens), but has smaller, lighter leaves and a more dwarf habit.

It is common around here in Va., and congratulations on finding smaller, older plants. In these parts, most English box are ten to 20 feet tall, with eight inch diameter trunks. Many are over 100 years old, some are over 200 if you know where to look.

In any case, you've got some pretty nice trunks to work with. Looks like you've got them in draining soil. That's important. Boxwood don't like wet feet. Don't be tempted to futz around with them. Let them get settled, make sure they drain and protect them this winter from wind and temp extremes.

FWIW, You might think about removing all their field soil and getting them into straight Turface MVP right now. I know I will hear howls of complaint, but I've seen straight Turface do wonders for newly collected boxwood from 70 year old hedging. They can't be left in the stuff for more than two years, though.

 

[Alain]

Looks to me like you have English Boxwood (Buxus Sempervirens "Suffruticosa") It is not all that common as bonsai material. It is one of the older varieties used in the U.S. and is close to American Boxwood (Buxus Sempervirens), but has smaller, lighter leaves and a more dwarf habit.

It is common around here in Va., and congratulations on finding smaller, older plants. In these parts, most English box are ten to 20 feet tall, with eight inch diameter trunks. Many are over 100 years old, some are over 200 if you know where to look.

In any case, you've got some pretty nice trunks to work with. Looks like you've got them in draining soil. That's important. Boxwood don't like wet feet. Don't be tempted to futz around with them. Let them get settled, make sure they drain and protect them this winter from wind and temp extremes.

FWIW, You might think about removing all their field soil and getting them into straight Turface MVP right now. I know I will hear howls of complaint, but I've seen straight Turface do wonders for newly collected boxwood from 70 year old hedging. They can't be left in the stuff for more than two years, though.

Thanks a lot!

Some precision though:

- 'Don't be tempted to futz around with them' that mean don't mess with them right? So no pruning the trees will take care of balancing their foliage with their new root ball alone, that's it?

- 'FWIW'? What does that mean? (seriously American people are incredible with the acronyms, when I was hire at my job the secretary asked me for my 'DOB', my answer was: 'Sorry, I don't have any of those'

More seriously: you think I should disturb them now to remove all the soil and re-pot them? That won't be too much to take for them just after the digging?
For the moment the soil I put is a mix of Napa oil dry and pine bark. I bought a Kingsville boxwood in April and re-pot it in that and it loves it (its original soil from the nursery was basically 100% gravel)
And yes the drainage is good on those above, I drilled a bunch of extra holes in the pots

 

[Soldano666]

Hey guys seriously: should I prune my trees (at least a little) to help them balance the severe roots lost or should I let them recover like that?

Not sure alain, personally I would a little. mainly to reduce size for what you want to end up with. I've collected a couple and chopped em back to almost just a stump. It's season 3 and they still haven't put on enough usable growth for styling. So don't go too bonkers if you want to have something to work on anytime soon. Luckily they already have some style to them to make thing a little easier to choose what should go. My were just bushes with no real trunk.

 

[rockm]

The FWIW is "For what it's worth"
http://www.internetslang.com/FWIW-meaning-definition.asp

Don't mess with them. This is a relative thing, though. If these were collected in the last few days, you can bareroot, prune chop etc. now, since they really haven't adjusted to the damage you've already done in collecting them. The window to do additional modifications is a short one though. A week may be a bit late.

Boxwood is extremely tough. Bareroot is possible IF you've got some "feeder" roots left. The more organic you have in the mix, the wetter the soil will stay. This can be a problem with larger training containers as they will stay wet within the root mass even if the edges are dried out. Careful watering is needed.

I had a friend who collected similar sized (but slightly larger) trunks from a 60 year old hedge in Arlington a few years ago. He planted those out in pure Turface in plastic recycling bins. The darn things rooted like mad over a couple of years. However, larger trunks had a tendency to die off, leaving the smaller ones. This can happen with old boxwood, as the older trunks tend to be les vigorous overall. The plants below are dwarf English Boxwood, They may have been dwarf when they were planted over 200 years ago, but now they're 15 feet tall...,but they're not collectible since they're on an historic site near me. There are less picturesque, but very old boxwood all over the place on the east coast...

 

[barrosinc]

'DOB', my answer was: 'Sorry, I don't have any of those'

had to google it...

Nice trees, hope they all survive

 

[Alain]

The FWIW is "For what it's worth"
http://www.internetslang.com/FWIW-meaning-definition.asp

Thanks a lot! Not always easy for me to figure them out and I didn't know there was actually a website for that

Don't mess with them. This is a relative thing, though. If these were collected in the last few days, you can bareroot, prune chop etc. now, since they really haven't adjusted to the damage you've already done in collecting them. The window to do additional modifications is a short one though. A week may be a bit late.

They have been collected this past Saturday so that was the reason of the urgency of my question as I though (rightfully obviously ) that if something was to be done it has to be now while they are still in chock. Ok. I'll bare-root them and may be do some pruning. Actually one, the one which is sitting on my working 'bench', I already removed almost all the soil but for the other ones there are room for improvement in this department.
[/QUOTE]

Boxwood is extremely tough. Bareroot is possible IF you've got some "feeder" roots left. The more organic you have in the mix, the wetter the soil will stay. This can be a problem with larger training containers as they will stay wet within the root mass even if the edges are dried out. Careful watering is needed.

I think there are some feeders, well you see the picture of the one on the bench, all of them are more or less like that.
Ok, definitively bare-root and remove the 'yard's dirt' then.
[/QUOTE]

I had a friend who collected similar sized (but slightly larger) trunks from a 60 year old hedge in Arlington a few years ago. He planted those out in pure Turface in plastic recycling bins. The darn tings rooted like mad over a couple of years. However, larger trunks had a tendency to die off, leaving the smaller ones. This can happen with old boxwood, as the older trunks tend to be les vigorous overall. The plants below are dwarf English Boxwood, They may have been dwarf when they were planted over 200 years ago, but now they're 15 feet tall...,but they're not collectible since they're on an historic site near me. There are less picturesque, but very old boxwood all over the place on the east coast...

Nice one! I freaking love boxwood!

[/QUOTE]

Not sure alain, personally I would a little. mainly to reduce size for what you want to end up with. I've collected a couple and chopped em back to almost just a stump. It's season 3 and they still haven't put on enough usable growth for styling. So don't go too bonkers if you want to have something to work on anytime soon. Luckily they already have some style to them to make thing a little easier to choose what should go. My were just bushes with no real trunk.

Thanks!
No chop to almost a stump for mine
In fact when I was dreaming 'boxwood' I had in mind a freaking huge, fat, old and gnarly single trunk like that:

But now that I've got those (which I am already totally nuts about ) my dream evolved in multi-tunks clumps, with deadwood and other shari like that:


But you know, much, much better

 

[Alain]

had to google it...

Nice trees, hope they all survive

Did you find if on google?
Turned out I had one...

 

[rockm]

From the look of the roots in your photos, you have mostly bare-rooted these anyway, just haven't done a really good job at it ;-) The dirt left up against the trunks in the interior of the rootball is a big problem. It is likely not protecting any roots and will only serve to keep the soil too wet. Take a hose and blast ALL of it off with a jet of water. Make sure you do the same with the roots you have. Also make sure you integrate those remaining roots into the soil you add. This is very important. Don't just dump dirt over the roots and forget it. Make sure you work the soil a bit into the roots a bit, making sure the roots are in contact with the new soil, not just surrounded by it.

 

[Alain]

From the look of the roots in your photos, you have mostly bare-rooted these anyway, just haven't done a really good job at it ;-) The dirt left up against the trunks in the interior of the rootball is a big problem. It is likely not protecting any roots and will only serve to keep the soil too wet. Take a hose and blast ALL of it off with a jet of water. Make sure you do the same with the roots you have. Also make sure you integrate those remaining roots into the soil you add. This is very important. Don't just dump dirt over the roots and forget it. Make sure you work the soil a bit into the roots a bit, making sure the roots are in contact with the new soil, not just surrounded by it.

Ok I'll do that!
I always try to put the new soil in contact with the roots and not let any air pockets (with a chop stick or more often with my fingers).

 

[Alain]

This afternoon @rockm gave me a bunch of information and at one point said something like: 'you did a bare roots but didn't do a pretty good job at it'
That' s not it, the thing is I didn't even try

The pictures above were the result of the end of step #1 of my collecting protocol version 2.0. which stipulates: 'collect the tree(s) and pot it safe to protect it then post of thread to brag and ask the guys'
Last year I got 4 junipers from my job, I potted them, worked on one and post and one of the comment from someone who knew was: 'good job killing the 1st one'
Hence the version 2.0

So now that I knew I could I did the aforementioned bare rooting, re-poted and pruned a little bit.
I took this tree to start with because it is the one with the less foliage and I thought it will be easier to get my hand at it.
It's my 'foot long nebari spread' one



So the bare rooting:


The black one are deadwood of dead-roots, pretty cool
In is final pot as I see it the top soil level will be just above the root on the extreme left.

For the pruning there was really not a lot to do


So I mainly thought about it and particularly the right side of the tree:


The branches pointed in red will be the one staying;

the ones in black will most certainly go but I don't have the tools for the moment to do it properly;

I redressed the little branch pointed in blue that could actually grow to the sky and become the apex

All the white mark the emplacement of the deadwood I would like but I have no idea on how to do that. I followed the class about jin and shari of my online course but it was on a juniper, I don't know how to grab and peel the living layers on this one So for the moment I didn't do anything, anyway I though it wasn't an emergency as I never heard of anything complaining that dying was taking too long, I assumed boxwood were included ;

The big red arrow points the part I want to remove but nicely, once again I don't have the tool nor the exact idea on how to do that.

I love the way the deadwood dies at the ends on my tree #1:


I would like something like that.

 

[Alain]

So that's what I did, think about this side:



And also a little pruning of the pads, nothing serious.


I also took a baby, a cutie of a cutting.


I read that boxwood propagate really well by cutting, if it works it will be my tree #1a


So that's it, tomorrow tree #2

 

[CWTurner]

That doesn't look particularily healthy. I'd leave it alone til next year.
CW