bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - Boxwood. Good for bonsai, or not.

I have a boxwood I've been working with for 7 years. In general, I enjoy it a lot. I think the foliage is sometimes difficult to work with--at least on mine, the slightest bit of shadow from other, better placed foliage causes dieback. The other problem with boxwoods is not in the tree itself, but in people's expectations. They often want to see a live oak style. I find boxwoods really lend themselves well to other styles, also. If you have a very heavy trunk with a lot of taper, a kind of beat up, chewed up field tree you often can see here in the Midwest is an ideal style choice. These trees are impressive because they often suffer great violence from the wind and animals and lightening and floods, and still continue surviving magnificently. Boxwoods can be deadwood paradise.

24-Jul-2006	#6
fredtruck bonsaiTALK Craftsman Join Date: Nov-2001 Posts: 94	I have a boxwood I've been working with for 7 years. In general, I enjoy it a lot. I think the foliage is sometimes difficult to work with--at least on mine, the slightest bit of shadow from other, better placed foliage causes dieback. The other problem with boxwoods is not in the tree itself, but in people's expectations. They often want to see a live oak style. I find boxwoods really lend themselves well to other styles, also. If you have a very heavy trunk with a lot of taper, a kind of beat up, chewed up field tree you often can see here in the Midwest is an ideal style choice. These trees are impressive because they often suffer great violence from the wind and animals and lightening and floods, and still continue surviving magnificently. Boxwoods can be deadwood paradise.