Ilex Crenata From Landscape

[DonielDoom]

Near the end of May I came upon a Craigslist freebie - an Ilex crenata dug up from a residential landscape. I eagerly got to work! Through the massive pruning process I managed to split it into two plants at the base.

I'm excited about the larger of the two and have a rough design direction in my head. I welcome any input and ideas.

Here they are a week or so ago.

 

[DonielDoom]

Here's the day of collection and start of this project from May 31 2024.



And the pile of trimmings...

 

[DonielDoom]

Forgot to add: a day or two after initial planting, I added a moss covering. That consisted of 1:1 mix of rough chopped sphagnum moss and live collected moss.

 

[DonielDoom]

I did some major pruning for a start to my initial design idea. Last year, it was left with a lot of generalized foliage both for later design choice and to simply regain health from collection.

Before





After

 

[Joelshack2362]

Nice work so far! Love the free Craigslist finds i was lucky a few years ago and got one myself.

 

[bonsaidream]

What a base!

 

[DonielDoom]

I have been minorly scratching off buds where I don't want them, but not anything significant. After taking some time to observe this one, I feel that a more active approach to managing the basal growth is needed. Regardless, I'm happy to see it chugging along.