Boxwood For Real.

@Vin provoked study!

sorce said:

What of the more vigorous center shoot?

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My in depth answer to myself?

The sexy forty fives with good early center pinching in the highly visible front.

All the ugly in the back!

But most importanitly...

Utilize this Vinspired thought.


I guess regardless of which shoot it is even, cuz it gets deeper, but assuming we can wire and negate any straight line...

Purposely leave the more (appropriately) vigorous shoot in the front.

To give that little more hint of depth in the sides.

Surely dont leave the vigorous shoot in back at the sides, that will show less depth considerably.

Even and sexy forty fives would be fine anywhere, as depth will give depth.

But now we have a tool to FURTHER the illusion of depth.

I need better reasons to cut branches!

Thanks Vin!

Sorce

Oh PS....

Them round Ass buds on my Baseball Boxwood Broom turned...(Ooooooohhhh the future is wicked!)

I thought they were undormant Reggie buds...

Upon further inspection....

They are flower buds!

Sure poppin Them ugly Ass things off directly in spring!

This was actually the first year I bought a Boxwood in spring! And that BBB just flowered this past year.
So I am just becoming familiar.
Registered and learnt!

For Real!

Sorce

"There'll be a mathematical reason behind why your tie is so bad."
-John Nash in A Beautiful Mind.

I read the AAC rules when they asked me to join...

It's number five that struck difficult for me.


5. TO PROMOTE BONSAI AS AN APPROACHABLE ENDEAVOR AND NOT ONE RELEGATED TO MYSTICS AND SAGES, SECRETS AND MYSTERY, FORMULAS AND RULES.

So I was upfront about my belief in the math behind it...


And it's getting worse!

If any code writers want to cypher it...

I figure we aint far from scannin Award winners and recreating them, with computers and robots.

And then there's the Sorcery thing....

But I took an oath still on the important part..

Not relegated to Mystics....

It's higher learning for All!

Observation is Key!

An equation for a tree!

Sorce

@sorce Have you checked out Michael Hagedorn's blog? His most recent post at the moment is on a cool Boxwood.
https://crataegus.com/2017/09/01/japanese-boxwood-as-bonsai/

thumblessprimate1 said:

@sorce Have you checked out Michael Hagedorn's blog? His most recent post at the moment is on a cool Boxwood.
https://crataegus.com/2017/09/01/japanese-boxwood-as-bonsai/

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Awesome!

That's more like it!

I was happy to hear "cutting them back".

And to read the whole no leaves on the tips anymore!

Also, I'm reading "slow to grow back" a lot, as far as defoliation.
Or slow to regrow...

Which for now is feeding into my theory of cutting before they grow....at all...

Since this is not a "regrowing", but a first growing of a reduced silhouette.

That's a top quality side piece!

Thanks TP!

Sorce

Ok i catched up lol
Probably gotta read it a few more times
I like boxwood allot

sorce said:

Upon further inspection....

They are flower buds!

Sure poppin Them ugly Ass things off directly in spring!

Sorce

Click to expand...

I'm learning to play the boxwood game, and this thread has been fantastic. Such great insight to consider. I love the three layers of circumference thing! Looks exactly like what I am seeing on these trees as I sit with them to figure them out. After I harvested and beat the roots up so badly to get them into manageable pots, I defoliated one of the three - to see the effect - in hopes of not overly stressing the recently compromised roots. We'll see how things play out as spring comes on here in Northwest Ohio. I've done no significant pruning of any kind so far. I wanted to let them settle in, but it seems that, at least in some cases, it's best to get all the big stress on the tree over with early. They may get unpotted, hosed, chopsticked, placed in better soil, and put into roomy pots before spring.

My question is this: Why pop off those "ugly ass things"?

Looks like the largest of the three that I get to care for now is covered in flowers/buds at the the ends of almost every growing tip of the "I've grown to the farthest radius from center" group. I'm going to assume that there is a discussion somewhere here on how to do that.

John in Toledo said:

My question is this: Why pop off those "ugly ass things"?

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I only ever seen them POST flower, all brown, stuck all in the leaves..ugly.

Could be some debate on wether or not flowers use extra energy....blah...

I believe this is the time of year, before they pop, that we should be cutting back in hard to our proper nexts anyway....
At least, I think that's where my thoughts landed! Lol!

I gotta check on mine!

The Robin's, the Dog shedding, spring is here.

Sorce

sorce said:

I only ever seen them POST flower, all brown, stuck all in the leaves..ugly.
I believe this is the time of year, before they pop, that we should be cutting back in hard to our proper nexts anyway....
Sorce

Click to expand...

Here's what I'm cleaning off the boxwood that just came to hang out with me. I think they are last year's blooms? I recently collected the specimen, and although I am not doing any cutting (I read that they grow slowly, so "Don't cut it unless you are sure you don't need it!), I'm trying to get rid of the dead branches, half-cut leaves from hedge-pruning, and all those chopped bits that were just laying all over the place inside. I figure this is as good a time as any to remove spent flowers. I need to take time to watch them grow before I dive in with both feet.

I'm hoping to learn about boxwoods. I really like them. I'll never look at a hedge the same way.

You mention "proper nexts". Can you expand on that a bit? The plant is really bush-y and I only want to do what is appropriate to set it up for a better future in my care. Definitely time to learn!

Also, since the flowers are tucked in each leaf's armpit, does that mean that no new shoots will grow from them once the flowers are removed? Should I expext the new growth buds further back?

p.s. I am not liking this recent round of snow in Toledo! I'm tired of working in the garage. I want to see sun on leaves.

John in Toledo said:

Here's what I'm cleaning off the boxwood that just came to hang out with me. I think they are last year's blooms?

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They are this years blooms.

Thanks, Vin!
I appreciate the patience of the group with enthusiastic newbies. I feel comfortable asking basic questions. You totally don't suck.

John in Toledo said:

You mention "proper nexts". Can you expand on that a bit?

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Generically...they say cut back to 2 leaves, or 2 nodes.

I use "Proper nexts" because it is more specific.
Sometimes proper is the first and third nodes. Sometime cutting all the way back to the first 2 leaves, leaves foilage to dense and clustered.

Proper nexts, especially on Boxwood.....
Is 2 horizontal buds with one top vertical bud just behind for backfill, to create more ramification and finer branching.

Proper nexts is taking into account the length, movement, vigor, taper, (current and future) of each branch.

Not just mindlessly cutting back to 2 nodes.

I've never seen a tree with the first 2 nodes in the same position.

Maybe 3 of ten times the first two nodes are visually pleasing to cut back to.

This is a good visual on my other box.

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/baseball-boxwood-broom.20023/post-471813

Sorce

John in Toledo said:

Also, since the flowers are tucked in each leaf's armpit, does that mean that no new shoots will grow from them once the flowers are removed? Should I expext the new growth buds further back?

Click to expand...

This is my first year dealing with them preflower.

I only have a few ....I'll probly remove one and see what it looks like....

If I was you...I'd take em off a branch, leave em on a branch...and see what it does!

@Vin have you "dealt" with flowers?

Sorce

Thanks. The pics on the other thread were helpful for visualization. Taming these collected Boxwood will be a challenge. All the tips are far from the trunk, but need to be shorter. Perhaps at midseason I will trim back to nodes a little further out than I plan, and see what comes up behind the cuts.

Clearly, I'll be headed to the nursery to pick up several to learn on without dealing with the older wood on the collected ones.

sorce said:

This is my first year dealing with them preflower.

I only have a few ....I'll probly remove one and see what it looks like....

If I was you...I'd take em off a branch, leave em on a branch...and see what it does!

@Vin have you "dealt" with flowers?

Sorce

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. Wait...maybe you are me! I don't we've ever been seen together in the same room.

I'll start taking pictures. If I were you, I'd be documenting this thing weekly. I might even "trim" sections of my neighbors hedge on the down-low, just for more data.

Been studying the Boxwood at the school.
Interesting as they bronzed on the outside but remained green inside.

If you were me, you'll take pictures of mine for us this year.

Thank you!

I cant wait to see growth this year!

It never gets old!

Sorce

sorce said:

@Vin have you "dealt" with flowers?

Sorce

Click to expand...

Not really, and by that I mean I've never seen the need to remove them. They don't seem to interfere with the ramification process or have any other negative effects that I'm aware of.

Vin said:

Not really, and by that I mean I've never seen the need to remove them. They don't seem to interfere with the ramification process or have any other negative effects that I'm aware of.

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Yeah.....I kinda just want to remove em so I don't have to see that brown!
@John in Toledo
Those things bug the shit out of me that's all! I wouldn't be removing them for "more growth" or "more energy" or any other of the things people remove flowers for.

I actually think the natural rythym is the best to work with, but if I can clip em without ruining the branch buds. .....
Bye bye future brown mess!

Mmmm....Box!

Sorce

I left one whole tree full of future brownitude @sorce , and removed (almost) all of them @Vin from a second. The ones at the very tips were hard to pinch without damaging the whole tip structure, so I left them. Might serve as a kind of "control" set since both trees will have them.

Hopefully, I'll take some "baseline" images of them to share tomorrow.

@Vin this here is about all I need as proof that....

Equal top and bottom removal IS safer!

Drastic...top AND bottom removal, is best!

English Box. 80% top removal. No bottom removal.

I thought the dog may have peed on it, causing the yellow leaves, but I have tried to keep it protected, and this one was too far away to get peed on.

English box. 80% top removed. No bottom removed.


My Baseball Box. 5 flower bud tips, that yellow is late growth bronzed, and the yellow tips were from too much direct sun early last year. Roots from full to half basket last year.
Severe top reduction.

The rest of the bigguns, minor damage..
Though I did do top work, they were allowed to grow back much more than the English box. Their % of damage reflects this seemingly perfectly predictably.


Those have all been wintered here.

In a bit more sun and temp variance then here...

Where the following are kept.
Mind you, there were 6ft icicles directly above this area, it was covered in about 3in of ice at one point....

Conditions that do this.

Yet here....severely equally reduced bottoms and tops. All mostly unmarked by winter!

In baskets.



And Pots!

One more...

Sorce