Should I dig up my boxwood?

These English Box are the first ones I smelled it on.

Sorce
 
ColinFraser said:
I disagree with this. I know a lot of people say it about boxwood, but I think it's unnecessary, especially in a collection situation. Watch the video I posted, particularly at 17 minutes - Larry has some really nice boxwoods, so he clearly knows what he's doing, and he saws off every branch to a foliage free stub!

What a colossal waste of time and energy it would be to leave long leggy branches with little tufts at the ends, only to have all of your new buds pop within an inch or two of the end!
Click to expand...

True. But where you get into trouble is when you cut off big chunk of those long branches with the tufts at the end, but you leave other branches with foliage. What the tree will usually do then, in my experience, is abandon the stump you left bare, and push its energy into the other branches and trunks. The reason Larry's chop works (and I'm sure it did) is because he left the tree no other green branches or trunks to direct new growth to. So what likely happened on his tree is that it started pushing out leaves all over those stumps and up and down the trunk about 3-5 weeks after he did the chop. Had he left one "good" branch alone, or several, or really anything other than a little tuft at the top, the tree might have died back everywhere except on the good branch(es) he left alone.

If you want to cut these guys back hard, it's fine, but you will get the best results by either (i) chopping all the foliage-bearing branches back to bare wood, or (ii) chopping everything back hard, but leaving a very small amount of foliage at the very tip of the apex. I have had success with both of these methods.
 
This one was dug up from my front yard 4 years ago. Add another 2 feet to what you see and that's what I dig up. Some foliage was left on all the remaining branches and every one survived.

BOX 2013.jpg

During the past 4 years it has grown and was cut back several times. I removed some branches along the way and finally repotted it two weeks ago. Far from a great tree but it's been fun and I learned a lot. Once I'm sure it has survived the repot I'll probably be putting it up on one of the Facebook Auctions.


BOX 3.26.2017.1.jpg

It has a nice root flare but the branch structure needs work.

BOX 3.26.2017.2.jpg

Just trying to give you an idea on what to expect.
 
With cut paste
 

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It's going to take you several years to get the girth you want on the secondary and tertiary branches, but once you do, and you get the foliage pads developed along those branches, this is going to be a great tree.
 
michaelj said:
It's going to take you several years to get the girth you want on the secondary and tertiary branches, but once you do, and you get the foliage pads developed along those branches, this is going to be a great tree.
Click to expand...
I'm 29 so I got (hopefully) plenty of time...I think that's basically the only options I ever had with this specimen. Dig it it, and wait.
 
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