Old Boxwoods

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Mame
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My cousin works for a landscaping company. He called me Friday and said he had 4 huge Japanese Boxwoods in his tree and shrub trash pile from a pull job where he put in all new shrubs. These were free :)...Of course I went and got them and was super happy when I saw how mature they really were. I am new to bonsai. This is by far the largest material I have ever worked with. I spent about 7 hours getting the's trees to where they are now. I have no intention of wiring just yet...I'm much more interested in survival. Obviously "styling" will come later. For now I put them on what I would call a "path". I tried to take the trees in the direction they seemed to want to go as I made cut after cut...lots of tough decisions. The large jins in the first two were basically already there. The super large tree obviously needs lots of work. I am in Texas, and I really like Boxwoods that take on a 200 year old massive Live Oak look...something that reminds you of that perfect climbing tree in the park. I would love to get this tree to that level of refinement someday. I could use a little help with were I am now concerning these trees. I have more pics of the trees but I could only post 5 to this page...Thank you very much for your time.
 

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Wee

Chumono
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I like the last one in the wood training box the best....Poink88 is in Texas and has collected a bunch of boxwoods....Maybe he will chime in and give some advise on getting these to live thru the upcoming winter.

Brian
 

lordy

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I like what you have saved, and how you have left green on the ends. I suspect that, IF you got to them in time, they will survive and turn out to be nice material in several years. Well done!
 

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I added 1 more pic of the fourth tree
 

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Coach

Mame
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I like what you have saved, and how you have left green on the ends. I suspect that, IF you got to them in time, they will survive and turn out to be nice material in several years. Well done!

Thank you for the affirmation and kind words. As far as survival...they were out of the ground for approx. 24 hours...temp avg was 65 degrees and light rain the whole 24 hours....pretty lucky timing I think...the trees had really well developed fine feeder roots which gives me a lot of hope :)
 

Rose Mary

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Very nice material. :) I love box too, have a slew but nothing with the bases you have. They should do fine beings it rained and all. Look forward to seeing the progression as they put out new growth.
Rose
sw oregon
 
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Coach

Mame
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The future?

I'm no artist but I was scetching this morning and came up with a basic plan for tree in pic 3. I have to admit out of the 4 trees this one intrigues me the most. Just sharing my ideas, what do you think?
 

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Poink88

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NIce find and looks like you did good trimming them down. Just protect them from severe freeze and should be fine. I collected several a month ago and they are already growing. Went through 2 28*F too and still going strong. Here is one of them...note the soda can on the right. ;)

10647178_859101317454321_5722942125597014732_n.jpg
 

Poink88

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BTW, personally, I will reduce them back a bit further...but leave some green on the tips. I grafted mine (about a dozen), in case you did not notice.
 

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wow 88

I'm guessing thats shohin material right?...j/k...your trees always impress, that thing is huge! How old do you think it might be?...I noticed you didn't leave any leaves (oops just noticed the graft explanation, above my skill set and knowledge)...I guess that's not necessary? Silly question but how do you know that tree is healthy right now...scratch test? Something else. I always appreciate your responses and input especially considering you live close by...thank you
 

Poink88

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See post above. We cross posted.

Re: age...estimate based on info the homeowner gave me is 55 years old. These were 12 feet or so tall before I chopped them down. Out of the 6, this is the biggest though...probably because it is the outermost and got more sunlight.
 
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Update: 2+ years later. One of the four has done quite well. I haven't touched it since placing it in the grow box pictured below. The tree is budding and healthy so I figured why not. While working on the tree today my rotten grow box fell apart so I decided to go ahead and pot it up. I potted as deep as I could...did some pretty aggressive root pruning, in a few years I can get it a little more tidy in a pot. Thanks for looking.
 

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Coach

Mame
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I like what you're doing with this. The shallow pot and short but spreading crown really emphasize the power of the base. Your tree has very impressive nebari for a buxus.
Thank you Tycoss. I'm happy with the turnout so far. Next will be continuing to work the transitions that I cut down to today and develop taper in the trunks and branches. I want the canopy to fill in quite a bit more over the next few years....crossing my fingers for some back budding
 

BunjaeKorea

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Ironically before reading this I saw the biggest boxwoods I have ever seen in my life high in the Korean province of Kangwondo where I am today.......about a foot and a half thick and about five feet tall..........monsterous...growing in absolute rock.......
Your trees are lovely will have to post my newly repotted tree soon
 

michaelj

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Stellar nebari on that big one. Consider hedge pruning the edges of your foliage for this year's growing season. It's done great things for dozens of my landscape salvage boxwoods. Do it every other month, and you'll see more back-budding all over. You need to find a way to encourage more foliage on that massive lower branch.
 

Coach

Mame
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Ironically before reading this I saw the biggest boxwoods I have ever seen in my life high in the Korean province of Kangwondo where I am today.......about a foot and a half thick and about five feet tall..........monsterous...growing in absolute rock.......
Your trees are lovely will have to post my newly repotted tree soon
Thank you...looking forward to your post...next time you pass by those big boxwoods take a pic! You are welcome to place the pictures on this thread if you would like.
 

Coach

Mame
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Stellar nebari on that big one. Consider hedge pruning the edges of your foliage for this year's growing season. It's done great things for dozens of my landscape salvage boxwoods. Do it every other month, and you'll see more back-budding all over. You need to find a way to encourage more foliage on that massive lower branch.
Thank you for the advice...how much do you take off when you "hedge prune" to promote back budding...aggressive like down close to the last few leaves on the branch or just a few leaves at a time?
 
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