coh
Imperial Masterpiece
Boxwood is one of the species that Jack Wikle talks about as doing well indoors year round.
Boxwood - Where to from here
- Thread starter Dorian Fourie
- Start date
milehigh_7
Mister 500,000
fredman
Masterpiece
Man this thread helped me make up my mind about Boxwoods. I have a 15yr old hedge of them that I need to remove, but was in two minds what to do with it. There's about 60 trees in that hedge. I'll bonsai the lot.. keep the best and sell the rest. If they layer well, I suppose they should survive a dig well to....?
Waldo Street Pottery
Chumono
I do this work on years that I'm not repotting, so not necessarily top and bottom pruning. I just don't leave one out of a pair of equal leaves. In my experience, they can stand aggressive root pruning. I'm not sure about dormancy, so I'll leave that one alone. Though my picture is pretty bad, here is a branch area I just worked. You can see some places where I took leaves out near the base of their shoot leaving buds, what I left and where I cut back to. Hope this helps.
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If I can understand well, do you do it this way?
http://www.bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/Buxus Indepth page 2.html
http://www.bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/Buxus Indepth page 2.html
Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
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@Dorian Fourie - yep, your virtual is pretty much what I was thinking.
Waldo Street Pottery
Chumono
That's pretty much my method, I go somewhat lighter than those illustrations, i.e., I might leave 2 sets of leaves.
Dorian Fourie
Chumono
With this detailed instruction you should be giving loads more instructions. This is brilliant. Thanks so much. I will definitely do this as soon as I get a gap.
We are heading into Autumn now. Should I hold off until Spring?
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Thank you very much for response. So you're the first who's confirmed me this. Giving it a try to push the size of two of my boxwoods.
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
This illustraton is for leaf reduction and ramification. It won't help to make boxwoods bigger. It will actually slow trunk growth if that's what you are trying to do.
I need to reduce the size of entire tree by few inches...and don't want to risk chopping it down with no leaves left. If I get the first (lowest) branches sprouted from back buds I will cut the rest of branches above. This is my intention.
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Waldo Street Pottery
Chumono
With this plan, if you see buds at the bases of the leaves, you will get 2 new leaves/branches from the pairs you cut back to. Let them run and repeat next time, removing the lowest sets you originally cut back to, creating branch structure with angles. If you need the branches to thicken, leave them alone. All this said, look at the angles left after cutting the center out, it's pretty rigid. Looking at the top of the illustration, the 3 branches, if you remove the left or right branch, the angle left has more grace with the softer angle. Something to consider after original cutbacks and with future growth/trimming patterns. I think I would wait until spring to do the trimming if you're heading into autumn.
Waldo Street Pottery
Chumono
Hi guys, I'm not trying to thread jack here but thought I'd share pics to back up what I posted. It's been just over a month since I posted and did the work on my boxwoods, and here is the results. You can see where I removed the lower leaves and the Mickey Mouse ears and the bacdkbudding that comes along with doing so, leaving many options for further development. I hope this helps!
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Geo
Chumono
@hometeamrocker
Not at all.Always very helpful to see such good evidence.First rate.Thanks a lot.
Not at all.Always very helpful to see such good evidence.First rate.Thanks a lot.
sorce
Nonsense Rascal
Nice HTR.
Just an observation.
In the Harry Drawing....he keeps the apical bud intact, they are cut in your pictures.....have you any that were not cut?
It is interesting to note.....that where a leaf was pulled, the branch is stronger, almost like you can reliably control them somewhat by leaving or removing leaves.
This could be very useful where you need stronger branches (remove leaf), or finer branches(leave leaf).
I think attention to these small details is important, especially for small trees.
Thanks for sharing!
Any other pics would be great too!
Sorce
Waldo Street Pottery
Chumono
What you see in my pics is where I cut back to, at the same time as removing lower leaves, choosing which 2 would be the apical leaves. These will become the Mickey Mouse ears after the new buds pop at their base and will be removed on the next go-round. And, I agree, the branches do seem to lignify and harden when removing lower leaves.
fh05
Mame
How hard can the roots be pruned and what is the best/acceptable time to work on roots? Thanks
Waldo Street Pottery
Chumono
Spring is the best time, and with a healthy tree you should have lots of roots. IMO, you can be pretty brutal. Also, a boxwood will throw roots all up the trunk, as high as the soil. I've had to work roots down the trunk to expose better nebari, as well as working them from the bottom up to the bottom of the trunk...
