Possible Boxwood Brutalization...

[TheDarkHorseOne]

Gonna be honest here, folks. This is an 8 dollar tree so I'm not afraid of doing time for murder. I have 2 options of pots. One is about 5x3 and the other is about 3x2. It's currently in a nursery pot and has no IDEA of it's fate today. I want to fit it in the 3x2 eventually, but this evening (Who am I kidding, it's 2 in the morn) I've decided to give it a slower, more torturous death in the 3x5. It's currently pushing new growth, so it's healthy. That may change... Heheh.

So, suggestions? Cut it back further and wire? Try to shoehorn it into the 2x3? Set it out in the busy street and give it a better chance at survival?

In all seriousness, I don't WANT to fail here, but this is my cheap experimental tree to get myself back into the business of bonsai. It's got a trunk about the girth of your pinky finger, if you're slender, if not a little smaller, and it's height currently from soil to apex is about 7 inches. Cute little roots that I wouldn't call nebari.

I'd love to read a few suggestions before I start work today, which will be after the IndyCar race at M-O (ABC at noon if you're interested), which ends at 3. I'll be reading here shortly after.

 

[JudyB]

Boxwoods take to root pruning very well. I would cut it back, chop the roots, but no wire for now. That is if the trunk is the size you want it. Once you put it in a smaller pot, it'll take much longer to bulk up the trunk, so you should keep it in a larger pot or ground plant it until it's fat enough.

But if I hear you, you just want to get it in a pot, not really concerned about the final image of the tree in the future? Then go for it, and see if you succeed.

But at some point, as you get back into this, you'll realize that when you first get the tree is the time to find the vision of what it'll become, so you can start it down that path, instead of blocking it's progress by being impatient....

 

[edprocoat]

Smack that bitch around and show it who's the boss! Boxwoods are pretty forgiving to pruning roots, branches, chops etc., my experience is even in a large pot or the ground Boxwoods take forever to form a good trunk. I have seen ones planted in the ground outside home that are 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide with 3/4's an inch trunk at the soil. There is a thread here, I believe its by smoke or october, but don't quote me on that, showing a nice trunked Boxwood, in the thread one or the other said " you definetly pick these for the trunk " which is about the only way you ever get a good trunk as trying to grow one, well, should we all live so long... But if you get one with a good trunk you can chop it low and develop new branches and apex in a few years and have a nice tree in a reasonable time. It sounds like you would be looking at a Mame size Bonsai and even at the small size with good wiring to add soem movement to the trunk and branches you can have a beautiful small Bonsai, I actually prefer the smaller one myself.

ed

ed

 

[JudyB]

Ed, you know I don't like it when you talk about me like that....

 

[tmmason10]

I know this is futile, because I was in your same place last year, but I don't know how productive it really is to kill stock on purpose. I guess a few of these massacres are ok for learning some basics, but it really becomes more enjoyable when you spend a tad more on a much better piece of material and just let it grow and get healthy. Everyone who's anyone as a bonsai-ist will tell you health comes first, then style. I think as you progress you'll see much better results if you go in with this mindset. watch Graham Potters videos, in the very beginning of every video he'll say how long the tree has been in the pot, and usually what signs he sees that tell him it's ready for styling.

Just trying to tell you from experience. As for now, as long as your having fun with it go ahead and quasi-murder some trees.

 

[Attila Soos]

Smack that bitch around and show it ...

Wow, I didn't know boxwood can be so erotically charged....
I need to get a closer look at the one I have. Perhaps the root-base deserves a good spanking?

 

[TheDarkHorseOne]

I appreciate some of you folks trying to 'talk me off the edge', as it were, but I ended up doing nothing. The little bush is in the process of budding out from the previous harsh pruning I gave it, and I didn't have any bonsai soil in which to put the little guy (improper planning). I AM going to do it, though, because I bought this tree for the specific purpose of working on it. Not 10 years from now when it's got a sufficient trunk, but now. As ed mentioned, the trunk size is good for a small tree, and Boxwoods are pretty resilient. I have a Japanese Maple that I have plans for which will require the patience some of you are asking for, and I will give, but I bought this Boxwood to actually WORK on. Both trees are staying healthy in an extreme drought here, so I'm obviously remembering some of my chops, if you will, from owning trees previously.

It's an 8 dollar tree. Yes, it deserves life and care, and I'm providing it, but as Naka said, 'If you aren't killing trees, you aren't making bonsai'. That isn't my intent. My intent is to learn, perhaps via trial and error, and maybe a bit more error in this case, but if I don't DO, all I'm doing is becoming a gardener with a nice bush and a pretty tree.

 

[TheDarkHorseOne]

I know this is futile, because I was in your same place last year, but I don't know how productive it really is to kill stock on purpose. I guess a few of these massacres are ok for learning some basics, but it really becomes more enjoyable when you spend a tad more on a much better piece of material and just let it grow and get healthy. Everyone who's anyone as a bonsai-ist will tell you health comes first, then style. I think as you progress you'll see much better results if you go in with this mindset. watch Graham Potters videos, in the very beginning of every video he'll say how long the tree has been in the pot, and usually what signs he sees that tell him it's ready for styling.

Just trying to tell you from experience. As for now, as long as your having fun with it go ahead and quasi-murder some trees.

I've watched all of GP's vids, tmm. This is an 8 dollar bush I bought specifically to work on in this fashion. This isn't a 150 year old Olive tree harvested with love in Italy and in a pot for 7 years. It's an 8 dollar Boxwood bush that might have been in a hedge right now, if not for me buying it. It also may have died from the severe drought here or simply gone un-purchased. With me, it's been fed well, regularly watered, and is budding out from an earlier pruning.

I'm not trying to kill it on purpose. If it happens, it happens and I learn.

Lighten up a hair, please. The first post in this thread was intended to be on the humorous side, not a mass murder's confession, heheh.

 

[tmmason10]

I've watched all of GP's vids, tmm. This is an 8 dollar bush I bought specifically to work on in this fashion. This isn't a 150 year old Olive tree harvested with love in Italy and in a pot for 7 years. It's an 8 dollar Boxwood bush that might have been in a hedge right now, if not for me buying it. It also may have died from the severe drought here or simply gone un-purchased. With me, it's been fed well, regularly watered, and is budding out from an earlier pruning.

I'm not trying to kill it on purpose. If it happens, it happens and I learn.

Lighten up a hair, please. The first post in this thread was intended to be on the humorous side, not a mass murder's confession, heheh.

I'm plenty lightened, just trying to impart some thoughts from one beginner to the next. Also, threads are always better with pictures.

 

[TheDarkHorseOne]

I'm plenty lightened, just trying to impart some thoughts from one beginner to the next. Also, threads are always better with pictures.

Dig it. I won't be getting a camera worth a hoot until October, but I understand the sentiment. What's the Maple in your picture, by the way? Akane?

 

[tmmason10]

Dig it. I won't be getting a camera worth a hoot until October, but I understand the sentiment. What's the Maple in your picture, by the way? Akane?

I need a better camera myself. It's actually just the regular Acer palmatum's springs growth. Right after the buds broke in March this year.

 

[TheDarkHorseOne]

I need a better camera myself. It's actually just the regular Acer palmatum's springs growth. Right after the buds broke in March this year.

Very pretty as it wakes up, unlike yours truly, heheh.

I love Japanese Maples. Something about their graceful elegance just burrows into my being.