Nursery Boxwood... Direction?

[Zaelthus]

Found this Boxwood in the bargain section of the nursery today for $15. It was about 6 feet tall, I noticed the decent nebari and liked the bark so i picked it up. The whole thing was pretty much covered in moss! Chucked it in the back of the car (literally) and chopped it down when i got home. I probably could have chopped it some more but didn't want to risk it due to the potential lack of back budding.

Should I pot this up into better soil and let it grow out a bit or...? I would like to get it to shohin size if I can, but that would probably require chopping back to those two shoots that are growing low on the trunk. Risky.

Sorry for the iphone pics, I will try taking some better ones tomorrow.

 

[Poink88]

Nice find!!! I love the trunk on it. I wonder why it was placed in the bargain section...it looks healthy.

I hope you still have the big branch you just chopped. It is worth trying to plant as cutting. A few 1" dia I tried 3 weeks back seem to be taking and not showing any sign of drying at all (knock on wood).

 

[berobinson82]

oh man! what a find! I can understand why it was in the bargain section. Most home landscapers want a round bush not this PERFECT pre bonsai material. Please keep us updated.

 

[bonsai barry]

Have you taken it out of the container to check out the roots? In my experience, there is usually an abundance of root on a boxwood. On the otherhand, it has probably spent a majority of its life in that container. In my climate, I would reduce the roots by about 1/3 cut down the container and then return the tree into it. It probably would survived if you took off more, but I like to be conservative.

 

[JudyB]

What I would do if I wanted a smaller tree out of this, is to cut back most of the remaining branches to a few sets of leaves, to encourage new buds lower on the tree. I'd probably take a few more branches entirely off the top. I would do some rootwork, but not as much as I normally would, as more roots will encourage vigorous budding. Just be careful to leave yourself enough safety branching, so if you don't get what you want low, you can still use it as a taller tree... This looks like a strong growing variety, so you can probably get it to do what you want with some time and repeated reductions.

 

[Bill S]

Unless you are planning to use the trunk as is and grow branches on it to fill out a design, you will spend many many years trying to get a raised leader to get big enough to make a believable transition from the trunk. These grow slowly.

 

[Poink88]

Unless you are planning to use the trunk as is and grow branches on it to fill out a design, you will spend many many years trying to get a raised leader to get big enough to make a believable transition from the trunk. These grow slowly.

I agree 100%...so try to use some of those bigger branches as much as possible to get proper taper sooner.

 

[rockm]

FWIW and water under the bridge, I wouldn't have trunk chopped this for a while or at all. It will take an extremely long time to replace the leader you removed.

When you get a decent piece of stock material, the best thing you can do is slow down. Enthusiasm has screwed up more than a few of my trees.

Trunk chops can't be taken back easily...on older boxwood growing out a new convicing leader is mostly impossible. That means approaching stock like this with any eye to keeping as much of that older growth as possible. Doesn't mean older growth can't or shouldn't be removed. It means a deliberate, long look at what can be done with it.

 

[Zaelthus]

Rockm, you're right I didn't think about growing a new leader and moved too quickly here. That chop is about 12 inches high, because it's a twin trunk I thought that one of them would need to be carved out eventually. So I chose to keep the smaller of the two trunks with the thinking that it would be easier to create taper that way but I should have gone 5 inches higher and waited to see what buds out.

I guess I just have to leave it now and see what comes to mind in the coming years.

FWIW and water under the bridge, I wouldn't have trunk chopped this for a while or at all. It will take an extremely long time to replace the leader you removed.

When you get a decent piece of stock material, the best thing you can do is slow down. Enthusiasm has screwed up more than a few of my trees.

Trunk chops can't be taken back easily...on older boxwood growing out a new convicing leader is mostly impossible. That means approaching stock like this with any eye to keeping as much of that older growth as possible. Doesn't mean older growth can't or shouldn't be removed. It means a deliberate, long look at what can be done with it.

 

[rockm]

Don't get me wrong, good smaller bonsai can be made from larger boxwood, BUT the design usually incorporates a lot of deadwood. I've got a larger 3 1/2 foot tall four inch diameter former hedge boxwood that I'm planning to chop to about ten inches total height. I plan on extensive carving and no new leader, using the low buds that have popped for branching.

You don't have that drastic an option with this now because of the lack of extremely low buds. That can be changed with constant hard pruning on the top working new growth back down the trunk. Your design using the remaining smaller trunk also depends on pushing growth lower down on that bare trunk. That can take a while, but it's doable in a few years.

First order of business is to get the plant healthy and in better soil. You can bare root boxwood with little trouble now and I'd do it now too. It looks like you've got some yellowing leaves--which CAN be a bad thing (but it can also mean the leaves are just old and are being replaced). I think in this case it's a sign of some developing root issues as the yellow cast in on many leaves on the same branch--in front and in back.

I'd take a hose and blast all that old soil off, Saw off the bottom third of the purged root mass and get it into a good draining bonsai soil...I've had great success with straight turface on boxwood. They seem to root extremely quickly and profusely in it.

 

[Zaelthus]

Would you put it in the ground or into a pot/grow box? I was hoping to do a live oak style but now I think it will need some major rebuilding to do that. I made a rookie mistake and instead of cutting a few sections at a time from the top down I started with a chop from the bottom.

Just for fun and internal pain I took some pictures with the leader temporarily stuck in place...What a blunder, lesson learned.

What it looks like now:




What it could have looked like:

Don't get me wrong, good smaller bonsai can be made from larger boxwood, BUT the design usually incorporates a lot of deadwood. I've got a larger 3 1/2 foot tall four inch diameter former hedge boxwood that I'm planning to chop to about ten inches total height. I plan on extensive carving and no new leader, using the low buds that have popped for branching.

You don't have that drastic an option with this now because of the lack of extremely low buds. That can be changed with constant hard pruning on the top working new growth back down the trunk. Your design using the remaining smaller trunk also depends on pushing growth lower down on that bare trunk. That can take a while, but it's doable in a few years.

First order of business is to get the plant healthy and in better soil. You can bare root boxwood with little trouble now and I'd do it now too. It looks like you've got some yellowing leaves--which CAN be a bad thing (but it can also mean the leaves are just old and are being replaced). I think in this case it's a sign of some developing root issues as the yellow cast in on many leaves on the same branch--in front and in back.

I'd take a hose and blast all that old soil off, Saw off the bottom third of the purged root mass and get it into a good draining bonsai soil...I've had great success with straight turface on boxwood. They seem to root extremely quickly and profusely in it.

 

[PaulH]

I've got to disagree that you shouldn't have chopped. I think you did exactly the right thing! In my experience boxwoods develop very quickly. Just let what you have grow wild, wire movement in when the branches are 1 - 2 feet long and then chop back again in a couple of years. Boxwoods may grow faster in Sacramento than B.C. but I could make a good bonsai out of this in 5 years.
Paul

 

[Zaelthus]

...and here she is root reduced and in fresh turface! I didn't have the time to build a proper grow box so I had to think "oustide the box" a bit I had a real tough time working the turface (with a chopstick) into the root mass as it is so dense. It was so packed in the nursery can that I had to cut it off. I also noticed that there were thick roots growing out of the bottom of the can that someone had recently cut off. I'm assuming these boxwoods were probably hidden at the back of the property for years. There were about 15 more at the nursery so i will probably go back tomorrow and see if I missed anything.

 

[Zaelthus]

I hope so! Any special techniques in terms of wiring? I notice that boxwood branches are very hard and brittle.

I've got to disagree that you shouldn't have chopped. I think you did exactly the right thing! In my experience boxwoods develop very quickly. Just let what you have grow wild, wire movement in when the branches are 1 - 2 feet long and then chop back again in a couple of years. Boxwoods may grow faster in Sacramento than B.C. but I could make a good bonsai out of this in 5 years.
Paul

 

[PaulH]

I hope so! Any special techniques in terms of wiring? I notice that boxwood branches are very hard and brittle.

Once the branches become woody they are nearly impossible to wire. That's why it is important to chop back and then wire the new growth once it extends. Your goal at that point is simply to start creating interesting, oak - like branch movement. Remember, the branches will be cut back several times as they develop.

 

[PaulH]

Chopping it back was good. Repotting it this time of year, not so much....
I hope it lives. Next one wait for fall or early spring to repot. (Your climate up north might make May repotting safer than it would be here in California.)

 

[Poink88]

Once the branches become woody they are nearly impossible to wire. That's why it is important to chop back and then wire the new growth once it extends. Your goal at that point is simply to start creating interesting, oak - like branch movement. Remember, the branches will be cut back several times as they develop.

Sorry to disagree. They are indeed hard and brittle but can be bent. How much and how abrupt depends on the size. I personally bend ones about 3/4" diameter by guy wiring and/or jacks and wired 1/4" w/o any problems. There is an article/tutorial on another forum about it but not sure if I can post it here.

 

[Smoke]

Interesting thread. I agree with Paul here. The leader you chose will probably work in your favor later.

Reducing that root ball to a suitable shohin size is off the table!

 

[Zaelthus]

Here is a quick update on the tree as of today, plenty of back budding going on! Just going to feed heavily for the rest of the summer and see where it goes from there.

 

[HotAction]

Interesting thread. I agree with Paul here. The leader you chose will probably work in your favor later.

Reducing that root ball to a suitable shohin size is off the table!

I reduced a boxwood rootball that size into a shohin pot in one sitting. It can be done, I'm not saying you should, but I got away with it.