3 Big Boxwoods

[Waldo Street Pottery]

While home on the farm this week I took advantage of an offer my uncle made to take 3 large boxwoods home with me. They were planted at a building in the '60's that became a church in the 90's and that's when they were dug for new landscaping and transplanted in rows on our farm for future use. There were 20 or more total, most of which were planted in my mom's yard and some around my uncles pool. The 3 that were left he offered me and I jumped on it. Unfortunately I only took "after" pics of number 3, I'll do the others tomorrow.

Large Box #1


Large Box #2



Big Box #3

 

[aidan13]

Those are monstrous! I also like the La Croix cans. Nice choice!

 

[johng]

Looks like they have some potential! I would be tempted to prune the foliage back...after removing anything unusable, leave a couple leaves on every branchlet.
john

 

[Waldo Street Pottery]

Thanks guys. I hacked 'em back pretty far, just forgot the "after" pics. I'll post them tomorrow.

 

[Poink88]

Nice score.

Looks like you are on a roll!!!

 

[Tona]

Nice material. I just pulled 7 big boxwoods from my sons house. He wanted thew whole hedge gone. I kept 4 and gave the rest away to other bonsai nuts in my area. Good luck. They are tough. Mine have only been out about 2 weeks and they are getting new growth all over. Dario (Poink88) has done some good work to rescued boxwoods.
Tona

 

[Waldo Street Pottery]

The after pics...

Big Boxwood #1


Big Boxwood #2


Big Boxwood #3

 

[Poink88]

All have great potential and can go many ways...surely challenging and fun projects IF you choose to see it that way. Definitely not straight forward trees. Good luck and have lots of fun!!!

 

[Waldo Street Pottery]

This week I re-potted one of the 3 Boxwoods, the one least like the others. It responded well to last years' collecting and grew well in a box all year, in a light Fafard soil. I exposed more nebari than I knew it had and planted it in a proper bonsai soil. It looks far more powerful in the smaller mica pot than the grow box, but not near as good in pics as in 3D. Wiring is next. I think the tree should be tilted a bit forward, I'm still working on potting/positioning skills. An update on the other 2 Buxus in the thread to come later.

 

[Poink88]

Love it. Really powerful tree you got there.

BTW, great advise from Peter Tea here about avoiding the "grey area".
http://peterteabonsai.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/initial-styling-in-the-grey-area/

"For those that want to produce a high quality tree, stay away from this grey area technique that I’ve used. Do what needs to be done with the tree correctly and create the best possible tree you can. Don’t take short cuts just so the tree can look, “pretty.” The correct way of developing Bonsai takes time and patients, and the result is a great tree."

 

[Vin]

They look great compared to mine! Dario has given some good advise so maybe there's hope for mine down the road.

 

[Waldo Street Pottery]

Thanks Vin & Dario. The Peter Tea article was a good read, I should check out his blog more. Overall I'm very happy with the successful collection, the quality of the material and where it's come in a year, considering my level of experience. I'm doing what I feel is right to move the tree along a logical progression. Thanks for looking!

 

[Poink88]

...Overall I'm very happy with the successful collection, the quality of the material and where it's come in a year,...

As you rightfully should. Congrats!

Looking forward where you take this and the other two.

 

[Waldo Street Pottery]

I'll update the other two soon enough. The plan is to marry them into 1 composition, in a 36" leaf shape pot. Rodney Clemons is going to do the day with me so I'm stoked, to say the least! Stay tuned...

 

[Poink88]

I'll update the other two soon enough. The plan is to marry them into 1 composition, in a 36" leaf shape pot. Rodney Clemons is going to do the day with me so I'm stoked, to say the least! Stay tuned...

Sounds like a back breaker.

IMHO, not a good plan. You will be "wasting" good stocks on a group planting. I believe each should shine on their own. JMHO

 

[Ryan820]

Seems we may need an update on this thread.

 

[Lazylightningny]

what do you think about layering in some roots a little farther up?

 

[Waldo Street Pottery]

3 Big Boxwoods- Update Fall '14

Just to keep old threads alive and check in on my own progress, here are some updated pics. The 2 clump style trees are still living in their original boxes and doing well, I'll start working on them more in the spring. The 3rd on is in a training pot and I'm very happy with it's progress. It's developed nicely. Both trunks had alot of deadwood on them that was recently removed, making both trunks thinner, but with more interest. They seem to have lost some taper in the process but the breaks, tears and holes hopefully make up the difference. I'm not good at photos, so forgive me there.

 

[Waldo Street Pottery]

Here's an update of the twin trunk that I wired today. Yes, my wiring sucks and yes, I need to learn styling too... Anyway, the tree!

 

[evolutionrevolution]

Looks like they have some potential! I would be tempted to prune the foliage back...after removing anything unusable, leave a couple leaves on every branchlet.
john

I leaving some green on branches really necessary?

16 min mark he goes to town.