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Imperial Masterpiece
Boxwood is one of the species that Jack Wikle talks about as doing well indoors year round.
Boxwood is one of the species that Jack Wikle talks about as doing well indoors year round.
@hometeamrocker Did you mean equal root pruning or....? And please,in your opinion(and I know that many species are tropical)can some of them get away without a proper dormancy Apparently the King can,but I don't have a King.Mine looks like a regular European type.But I bought it at a nursery here and I am suspicious.Buy a dozen,put in a nice parterre or something.Watch them decline and then go back to the nursery for more.Anyway,an odd problem,I know but any insight would be appreciated.
If I can understand well, do you do it this way?
http://www.bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/Buxus Indepth page 2.html
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.Hi, I rarely reply with "instruction", but I love boxwoods and have recently worked all of mine and love the results. I agree with most, if not all of what has been posted thus far. If this were my tree, I would start by cleaning it up. There are a lot of long whips (branches) that could be taken back to begin reasonable branching. If you understand the concept of taper (assuming), take the branches back to begin good tapering. Any place where the branch splits into a trident, take one away. When I started with boxwoods the center one seemed the obvious choice. But, I didn't always like the hard angle it left of the 2 remaining branches. So, take away one of the side branches that's going in the direction less appealing. Another clean up is taking out old leaves. Any place the branch has split into 2-3, and there are leaves at the base of the split, I call them Mickey Mouse ears, I take them out by pulling towards me. These leaves have done their job and often grow larger than others. This will clean up the split and expose branch structure and interesting angles. Also, I take out sets of leaves near the trunk or main branches. I pull them in pairs towards me, leaving dormant bud intact. Removing leaves in these ways will give you a much cleaner image while allowing air and light to the interior of the plant, and again showing angles and branch structure. To me, boxwoods look best with leaves mostly at the tips of the branches, thought they want to set leaves way down at the base and crotches of splits. Finally, any pruning means equal pruning, essential in boxwoods. If the tree were mine, I would go through this clean up process to expose what is really there and make further decisions from there. Just taking out the Mickey Mouse ears and lowest leaves on the branches will make a big difference. Keep us posted.
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.View attachment 96818
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.
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.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.
View attachment 96823
Mickey Mouse
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
How hard can the roots be pruned and what is the best/acceptable time to work on roots? Thanks