I drive by a property coming and going from work, with a couple of mobile homes on it, and there are numerous boxwood shrubs that have been there for 70+ years, leftover from an old homestead that sat there when it was the boondocks. The road has been actively in use since the 1820s, and is today a nationally designed “canopy road”, so it’s possible they are even older.
This property is destined to be medical offices one day (given its proximity to a hospital, high traffic/visibility, and the other growth in the area). The bases of these plants are easily in the 8”+ range, though they have been kept (at least for the past 16 years), to 3-4’ tall. There are other ancient plants, too, but it’s those boxwoods that draw my attention every time I drive by. Thinking about looking up the owner and seeing if they’ll let me dig them up before they sell the property, because they’ve got to know that any buyer is going to thoroughly raze the vegetation as a first step in development.
It’s a daunting project, no doubt.
Any updates? I
only collect & propagate so know alllll about watching specimen that're obviously going to be removed and, when it's commercial and I don't know anyone involved, I've had zero luck getting permissions - nobody involved has *anything* to gain by giving permission for me to traipse-around the property, and they do take-on liabilities (I could be looking to get faux-injured & sue or something), there's just every incentive for them to say 'No'
even if the tree *should* be lifted by anyone's reasonable appraisal (IE even the person saying 'No' isn't doing it for the tree) so, well....I'd never ever endorse (or do, or admit to doing!) a single, solitary pull from a private site - even when it's a situation where I see I could pull-over, spend 5min out of the car maybe 10' onto a 'restricted area' and grab a tree I know will be dozed/knocked in the next days/weeks, well...I'd never chastise someone for going ahead and 'rescuing' the tree (though I'd advise them not to talk about it and, if ever injured for real, get your ass off their property / don't involve them - there's an ethical case to be made for removing something that nobody will notice was removed before their chance to remove it
so long as there's no 'touch' on the area. Fences usually make this a pointless endeavour, however for an interesting case-study I'd found an abandoned old church that had a TON of land behind it, thing has been bought for development but has sat for years - there are a ton of specimen there, one could simply pull-up to the back of the parking-lot right beside the woods and, within 10' of the edge of the woods, there's plenty to collect - this area WILL be removed when the land is finally developed (zero chance it's going to be protected / not be developed) and, for all intents & purposes, it only 'belongs' to someone on paper IE it's abandoned for all practical purposes....in such cases I have trouble finding anything wrong ethically (except the problems that could result from getting in trouble over it if a busy-body wanted to pursue it) but obviously this is a personal choice & obviously when-in-doubt just pass on it!
Boxwoods have been a PITA for me, my sole decent specimen just will.not.grow with any vigor, has been established about a year and has been up-potted (has been in inorganic and 50/50 substrates, and in varying sunlight-levels) and still the slowest-grower I've got, maybe on-par with my lil junipers, but can't figure it out...have had it on tons of fert and w/o fert, the thing grows at a steady pace and never seems to alter that pace regardless of condition!!
