My Kingsville Box

[just.wing.it]

Its from Brussel's Bonsai. I got it early in the spring this year as a very spherical, very large, very topiary-looking thing....
I cut it back very hard but didn't touch the roots.
At first, I thought I had killed it!
I cut it back in April.....it showed no signs of life until July....lesson learned there.
When it did come back, the foliage was very large and coarse.
I wondered if I had forced the plant into a new mutation, God forbid!
It grew an initial flush of this coarse growth in July.....then in September it began growing again with the smaller, more Kingsville-looking foliage.

I think I'm in the clear now....but that was weird.
I suppose I over-stressed the plant with such a hard pruning....and maybe it came back with larger solar panels to revive itself....I dunno.....just a guess.

Enough BS, I have a serious question here!
I've heard that some people keep Buxus as they keep their Tropicals....I don't know the common consensus on this, especially with Kingsville....but I want to know!
Any thoughts?

I love that its already a leaner....to the pics!

 

[jimib]

I kept mine outside all year..however in the coldest part I put it in an unheated greenhouse..I’m talking below freezing for weeks. The greenhouse was only around 5-10 degrees higher than outside temps

 

[just.wing.it]

I kept mine outside all year..however in the coldest part I put it in an unheated greenhouse..I’m talking below freezing for weeks. The greenhouse was only around 5-10 degrees higher than outside temps

Thanks!

And yes, that would be my normal approach....or to mulch it on the ground and let it be outside all winter.

If it is safe to keep indoors at Room Temperature, under lights with the Trops, I'd like to consider it.....at least for this year because it is recovering.

@JudyB was it you who kept a Boxwood inside all winter?

 

[River's Edge]

Thanks!

And yes, that would be my normal approach....or to mulch it on the ground and let it be outside all winter.

If it is safe to keep indoors at Room Temperature, under lights with the Trops, I'd like to consider it.....at least for this year because it is recovering.

@JudyB was it you who kept a Boxwood inside all winter?

I have kept my Kingsville Boxwood inside for part of the winter some years and have also kept it in my unheated greenhouse for the winter. My climate is fairly mild in the winter with -5 C to -10 C being the coldest usually and only for shorter periods of time.
When i first acquired it the professional advice i received was to protect it from colder temperatures. -10 C was the suggestion.

 

[just.wing.it]

I have kept my Kingsville Boxwood inside for part of the winter some years and have also kept it in my unheated greenhouse for the winter. My climate is fairly mild in the winter with -5 C to -10 C being the coldest usually and only for shorter periods of time.
When i first acquired it the professional advice i received was to protect it from colder temperatures. -10 C was the suggestion.

Thanks! I do get colder than that here sometimes....but we get lots of fluctuations as well.....which is the real killer.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Kingsville are really zone 6 plants, with more protection zone 5. That doesn't look like Kingsville to me. I did once defoliate a different Boxwood and it punished me by taking two years to return to normal looking. You can keep them indoors as houseplants, but they lose vigor and don't grow as well the following spring & summer.

 

[just.wing.it]

Kingsville are really zone 6 plants, with more protection zone 5. That doesn't look like Kingsville to me. I did once defoliate a different Boxwood and it punished me by taking two years to return to normal looking. You can keep them indoors as houseplants, but they lose vigor and don't grow as well the following spring & summer.

I wish I had a "before" pic....it is a Kingsville.
Maybe next year's growth will be more convincing.

 

[Hartinez]

I don’t have a Kingsville but Ive had a Japanese boxwood forest now for about 4 yrs and I’ve left it out unprotected every year. It’s never missed a beat, and grows and responds to trimming quite vigorously.

 

[Forsoothe!]

This is a 'Kingsville'. Internodes are never long regardless of occasional leaf size.

 

[just.wing.it]

This is a 'Kingsville'. Internodes are never long regardless of occasional leaf size.
View attachment 269337

Ever cut back to nothing though?
That's what I did....

 

[Forsoothe!]

Rot's 'O Ruck...

 

[JudyB]

Thanks!

And yes, that would be my normal approach....or to mulch it on the ground and let it be outside all winter.

If it is safe to keep indoors at Room Temperature, under lights with the Trops, I'd like to consider it.....at least for this year because it is recovering.

@JudyB was it you who kept a Boxwood inside all winter?

Yes, every winter for at least 10 years with no problems.

 

[rockm]

Its from Brussel's Bonsai. I got it early in the spring this year as a very spherical, very large, very topiary-looking thing....
I cut it back very hard but didn't touch the roots.
At first, I thought I had killed it!
I cut it back in April.....it showed no signs of life until July....lesson learned there.
When it did come back, the foliage was very large and coarse.
I wondered if I had forced the plant into a new mutation, God forbid!
It grew an initial flush of this coarse growth in July.....then in September it began growing again with the smaller, more Kingsville-looking foliage.

I think I'm in the clear now....but that was weird.
I suppose I over-stressed the plant with such a hard pruning....and maybe it came back with larger solar panels to revive itself....I dunno.....just a guess.

Enough BS, I have a serious question here!
I've heard that some people keep Buxus as they keep their Tropicals....I don't know the common consensus on this, especially with Kingsville....but I want to know!
Any thoughts?

I love that its already a leaner....to the pics!
View attachment 269300View attachment 269301View attachment 269302View attachment 269303View attachment 269304View attachment 269305

Probably NOT a Kingsville, more likely one of the other small leaved cultivars (wintergreen, that are passed off as Kingsville). Anyway, keeping it inside for the winter is not the greatest approach around here anyway. All the smaller leaved varieties like this are mostly taken from sport of Microphylla boxwood which are among the most cold hardy of the lot, zone 5 or thereabouts for Sinica.

I would NOT try to keep this inside. Just mulch into a garden bed under a layer of mulch as thick as you can get--up to the first branches. I place mine on the patio with a couple of bricks under the pot so there is drainage space underneath, then dump mulch on it. Done that for years. Have NEVER had a problem. Drainage is important. I don't put them in storage until Thanksgiving or thereabouts. Initial frost and freezes are important to harden them off for winter.

They're tough plants, coddling them will kill them.

And FWIW, I can't believe you're looking for Kingsville online from a supplier five states away. You're in true "Kingsville Central" The variety was first cultivated in Kingsville, Md. True Kingsville are available around here if you look, especially at old nurseries. It also turns up at the Arb Show and Sale pretty regularly. There's a woman from Maryland who sells them at the show occasionally who is related to the nurseryman that originally cultivated them. She has a few (although her supply is dwindling) in a grow plot. That's were I got this one.

The Journal of the Toronto Bonsai Society

The Journal web site contains monthly print materials for various editions of the Toronto Bonsai Society's publication.

torontobonsai.org

 

[rockm]

This is a 'Kingsville'. Internodes are never long regardless of occasional leaf size.
View attachment 269337

Yep. Mine is DENSE and needs hard thinning every spring. Tight growth tends to look more like scales than leaves from a distance.

 

[rockm]

I wish I had a "before" pic....it is a Kingsville.
Maybe next year's growth will be more convincing.

Don't think so. New growth is way too long and leaves too big. I am brutal in pruning mine every spring. It never pushes growth like that. FWIW, most people have never seen an actual Kingsville as they're not as common around the U.S. as the other smaller leaved varieties.

Boxwood from Saunders Brothers Inc

National Bonsai Collection Blog Begins

For the inaugural post of the this blog I think it would be fitting to feature the very first bonsai within the National Arboretum’s collection. Most people don’t realize that the Japanese Co…

capitalbonsai.wordpress.com

 

[JudyB]

Don't think so. New growth is way too long and leaves too big. I am brutal in pruning mine every spring. It never pushes growth like that. FWIW, most people have never seen an actual Kingsville as they're not as common around the U.S. as the other smaller leaved varieties.

Boxwood from Saunders Brothers Inc

National Bonsai Collection Blog Begins

For the inaugural post of the this blog I think it would be fitting to feature the very first bonsai within the National Arboretum’s collection. Most people don’t realize that the Japanese Co…

capitalbonsai.wordpress.com

Yeah mine would put out 4 new leaves per tip in a good year....LOL.

 

[Silentrunning]

Learned strictly from experience- freezing didn’t hurt my 5 at all last winter but hard frost did damage some leaf tips. This year I will set them on the ground, mulch the pots and have a loose sheet of plastic suspended about 4 feet above them to prevent frost contact.

 

[rockm]

Learned strictly from experience- freezing didn’t hurt my 5 at all last winter but hard frost did damage some leaf tips. This year I will set them on the ground, mulch the pots and have a loose sheet of plastic suspended about 4 feet above them to prevent frost contact.

Mine have gone through single digit temps and hard wind over the years. All I get is bronzed foliage--which turns green again in the spring. Snow helps a lot with overwintering these. Since most are so short, they get completely covered for days if we get even six inches of snow. If we get snow like this--they're buried for a month. No problems if this happens though. The Kingsville is somewhere under all that. The cinder block stack is four blocks tall BTW...

 

[just.wing.it]

Don't think so. New growth is way too long and leaves too big. I am brutal in pruning mine every spring. It never pushes growth like that. FWIW, most people have never seen an actual Kingsville as they're not as common around the U.S. as the other smaller leaved varieties.

Boxwood from Saunders Brothers Inc

National Bonsai Collection Blog Begins

For the inaugural post of the this blog I think it would be fitting to feature the very first bonsai within the National Arboretum’s collection. Most people don’t realize that the Japanese Co…

capitalbonsai.wordpress.com

I've seen several decently developed Kingsville's and I'm familiar with the growth.
What you describe is what I removed.

 

[coachspinks]

Some interesting Kingsville stuff. Brother Paul at the Monastery had a cutting off of one of the original Kingsville's, or so the story goes. I have attached a picture. He made a lot of cuttings off of his original and sold them at the Monastery. I received several and planted a couple in the ground. One survived and is now over 30 years old. It survived some near zero degree nights here in Georgia. The 3 little ones I attached are offspring of the one in the ground.