A "Better" First Try - Nursery Stock Boxwood

[AstroDevil95]

Hey Ya Nuts

Second post here - had some real helpful comments on my first one so might as well share this one too. Again, I live in Northern NJ - Zone 7B and this is an attempt at first pruning of a Japanese boxwood I found at a local nursery. Tried to focus a little more on scale, and wired just a few branches in the back/side in order to pull the tree apart/open and get some light in. Going to let it sit in the nursery pot till at least the spring.

Biggest improvement I think I made was cutting back branches instead of removing completely. I feel the tree is a little bushy at the top still - but Im nervous to cut off too much as I got snip happy with my first attempt leaving a very wispy looking tree. Any things you guys see that maybe I don't? Any suggestions when working with Japanese boxwoods?


Peace

 

[RKatzin]

Buxus are slow growing shrubs with a predominantly upward growth habit. They usually don't have a central trunk with side branching, more like a multi trunked broom. I have worked them from the 'let's see how much of this I can save' POV, but I think it's much more productive to just give it a hard cut back from the git go and build a new structure and canopy from there up.
The next person is going to tell you to wire up the whole tree, but I don't wire my trees I cut out what I don't like and regrow it the way I like it. I know it's all the rage and everybody is doing it, but you can still make bonsai without any wiring.
I would at least thin out the top enough to see the structure of the branches. As though if it was a big tree a bird could fly through the branches.

 

[rockm]

I agree with @RKatzin. Wiring a boxwood is mostly unproductive. Boxwood has dense wood and wire typically won't hold it very well, if at all in the case of larger branches. There is also substantial problems with wiring smaller and medium sized branches as the process of wrapping wire around them can inadvertently strip the cambium off down to bare wood.

definitely a hard prune/grow out type of tree, as that not only produces more reliable results. Wiring induces "rainbow" arced bends because drastic bends snap the brittle wood. Clip and grow can produce very nice movement in branches even drastic changes of direction, which make branches look "believable". Takes a while longer, but it's worth it.

Thinning is almost as important as pruning. Removing unnecessary branching helps open up the interior and lighten up the design. With yours, think about reducing all branching to two or three leaves. Doesn't mean you have to do it, but thinking about it can make you see the "smaller" tree inside. As things are now, the tree is about one to two thirds too tall.

 

[AstroDevil95]

Hey Guys,

Thanks so much for your help! I attached a photo of what I think you guys mean as well as an inspiration photo of what I am going for with this boxwood. the red line is my plan of what to cut back. I think the goal may be to take back all the branching. I have curly hair and I think the tree looks a lot like me when I go a little too long without a haircut (I look like a broccoli head) lolololol

I also think here I need to thin out a little to expose those cool looking branching in the back. Right now she looking like a tree/bush - but I want her to look like a tree

 

[rockm]

Hey Guys,

Thanks so much for your help! I attached a photo of what I think you guys mean as well as an inspiration photo of what I am going for with this boxwood. the red line is my plan of what to cut back. I think the goal may be to take back all the branching. I have curly hair and I think the tree looks a lot like me when I go a little too long without a haircut (I look like a broccoli head) lolololol

I also think here I need to thin out a little to expose those cool looking branching in the back. Right now she looking like a tree/bush - but I want her to look like a tree

Take it back further. Still a bit too tall. You're not only shortening the branches, but making room for additional tertiary branches to grow out. So that means the "finished" height is going to be taller than the initial cut back, if you follow.

 

[AstroDevil95]

Take it back further. Still a bit too tall. You're not only shortening the branches, but making room for additional tertiary branches to grow out. So that means the "finished" height is going to be taller than the initial cut back, if you follow.

Very helpful thank you so much! at what point should I be worried about taking too much foliage off? From what I am picking up such a big prune will leave the tree rather bare IMO. We are a few months at minimum to a hard freeze and im sure the tree will start to recover. I know this is where the artistry and experience comes in but should I air on the side of taking more back if I want to get those dramatic bends and branching in a tree that's not being wired - and not worry so much on removing foliage?

Hope this makes sense! also any book recommendations would be great.

 

[Dogestoevsky]

You can prune boxwood back to almost nothing. It backbuds well. Unless the tree is very young, make sure to leave active growth on the branch. Here’s a series of photos from a hard prune on one of my shohin sized buxus.

Nursery stock:


First hard prune and repot:


Taking off more the following year because I didn’t go hard enough:


Current state (2 years later, ready to style, finish the uro, and repot in spring):


Boxwood does okay with guy wires, but yeah clip and grow is the best!

 

[AstroDevil95]

You can prune boxwood back to almost nothing. It backbuds well. Unless the tree is very young, make sure to leave active growth on the branch. Here’s a series of photos from a hard prune on one of my shohin sized buxus.

Nursery stock:
View attachment 562774

First hard prune and repot:
View attachment 562776

Taking off more the following year because I didn’t go hard enough:
View attachment 562771

Current state (2 years later, ready to style, finish the uro, and repot in spring):
View attachment 562777

Boxwood does okay with guy wires, but yeah clip and grow is the best!

Thanks of the photos! trying to get into the mindset that even if I snip a piece off something new and cool will grow in its place. Super Helpful!

 

[B-Trees]

There's two great videos about boxwood on Mirai's YouTube, here and here.

What's the nebari like? It seems like you have an idea of the branch structure you'd like for the front, but that's gotta be balanced with showing off the surface root structure.

If this was mine, I would jin/ remove one of the two primary branches on the right, probably the thinner, graceful one, though I can't say for sure

 

[AstroDevil95]

There's two great videos about boxwood on Mirai's YouTube, here and here.

What's the nebari like? It seems like you have an idea of the branch structure you'd like for the front, but that's gotta be balanced with showing off the surface root structure.

If this was mine, I would jin/ remove one of the two primary branches on the right, probably the thinner, graceful one, though I can't say for sure

Heyoooooo

Nebari looks promising, but pretty scraggly looking and dense on that right side. Any suggestions for good methods for developing some nice surface roots? THANKS

 

[B-Trees]

It's really, really difficult to develop a good nebari on these. They tend to have 1-2 giant roots at the surface and then a zillion feeder roots underneath. They also don't heal all that well, so root grafting isn't an option.

My only suggestion is to "tile plant" it, where you insert a tile (like 3x the diameter of the trunk) or bit of plastic or wood into the root mass, about 1in under the center of the trunk, splaying the roots on top of it so that they are forced to grow outwards, towards the sides of the container, instead of growing down. Like a miniature version of this, from Bonsai Tonight. It'll take a few years to develop from there

 

[AstroDevil95]

Take it back further. Still a bit too tall. You're not only shortening the branches, but making room for additional tertiary branches to grow out. So that means the "finished" height is going to be taller than the initial cut back, if you follow.

Hi All,

Took your advice and decided to cut back a lot more than initially. I can kinda see what this thing may look like in a few years and I think its going to look really cool! Hope all the optimism pays off lol removed some wiring and mostly just used the wire to push the branches down a bit