Boxwood. Good for bonsai, or not.

Bentreemin

Never tried box because they quite slow growing and the only specimens I seem to see at nurseries are pompom topiary or pencil thin waifs. I do remember reading about a newly discovered box blight a few years ago http://www.rhs.org.uk/research/proj...ndrocladium.asp
I think this is still rife in the south UK so watch out

All your box look well and the leaf size is condusive to bonsai so I may have a hunt for more fattened up stock! BTW does anyone know how/why they got the name boxwood?

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bneff

I have 2 Korean Boxwoods. I like the way they look, rugged bark, small leaves, lots of fine roots. Of course they can be slow growing, but if find the right nursery, you can find older & larger plants to work with. Here is my smaller boxwood (boxwood1.jpg) and the larger one that was cut down and back this spring (with more to come as it back buds). When I bought the smaller one I started taking soil off ( I had stuck my finger down in the pot and found what I thought was the top of the roots) and kept going & going & going till I have what you see here. It's different, but I've grown to like the exposed twisted roots.

Bill

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	boxwood 2.jpg (53.7 KB, 77 views)

IndieBookMan

Thanks for posting this boxwood - I just bought one that is about the same size, and is similar in shape too. This is really helpful as a guide to what I can do with it.

Im a really really really beginning beginner, and needed something to work towards and from. So, thanks!

Brad

exarchitect

Nice tree. The only thing I'd do is to wire the lower branches down so it spreads like an old oak.

A couple of my favorite bonsai are kingsvilles.

Bill

bonsaial1

Good post Mike, but the pole is skewed, or at least the replies. Most of the people responding favorably have mentioned kingvilles. This thread or poll should have been split in half and one poll for kingvilles and one poll for full size box.

Why?

Because nearly all kingvilles resemble a tree even in the nursery. It is not hard to find a suitable tree in any gallon container. Just pull it out of the nursery can and into a bonsai pot and this will be better than most any other plant treated the same way. Of course we don't stop there and continue to look for interesting trunk shapes, nebari, better branching, etc. Kingsvilles also tend to grow themselves from single trunks and tend to branch higher asthetically.

Standard box has none of these attributes. They tend to grow much like a shrub and almost never grow from a single trunk. They branch and grow several trunks right from the base and getting a thick single trunked speciman is rare. The foliage on the standard never looks like kingsville foliage and is more open and airy. Pinching helps but it takes a lot of time to keep them up. They tend to look poodled if not treated properly. Yes the wood is dense, but carving always looks contrived and out of place on a boxwood. They are seldom if ever seen that way in nature and there is no natural imagery to compare them to. I have seen some good carving and natural deadwood on a box, but the shrub also had a very twisty and contorted shape due to its training from a gallon can.

Boxwood is highly resistant to bending and a main reason it dates back to medieval periods for its charectaristics in bow making and arrow shafts. Its very good memory ability made it perfect for bows. Wireing branches can take many years and they heal slowly so scars should be avoided at all costs.

Sorry...my short answer, Kingsville yes, yes.
Standard box...ehh maybe, with the right stock and enough time...

Regards, Al

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A tree a day...thats all we ask.

rockm

"They branch and grow several trunks right from the base and getting a thick single trunked speciman is rare. The foliage on the standard never looks like kingsville foliage and is more open and airy. Pinching helps but it takes a lot of time to keep them up. They tend to look poodled if not treated properly. Yes the wood is dense, but carving always looks contrived and out of place on a boxwood....

Sorry...my short answer, Kingsville yes, yes.
Standard box...ehh maybe, with the right stock and enough time"

All this is true for "standard" boxwood, BUT, I find Kingsville box a little contrived and too "cute" for my taste. They are also extremely slow growing--slower than any other box. That means you can't really "grow it out" to increase trunks or limbs. What you buy up front is pretty much what you get ten years from now...I can't take "cute" widdle bonsai . I want big, ugly imposing trees.

Big boxwood are pretty common around these parts. Larger, yard grown box are VERY good bonsai material. It's pretty fast growing--at least compared to Kingsville or other small leaved varieties. A pretty credible bonsai can be made in a few years from even huge stock.

Alot of it, especially old American and English box, have single trunks. I've seen and collected single trunked specimens of both of these in excess of six inches in diameter from old plantations here in N.Va. Single trunked box with trunks a two feet in diameter and in excess of 20 feet tall are not uncommon at some older estates in the area, as some were planted 250 years ago. There are "dwarf" box at George Mason's estate Gunston Hall that have unbelieveable twisted tortured trunks and limbs, with foot diameter trunks that are only eight feet tall. They were planted 200 years ago in his back garden. Wish I had some pics of them. They're unbelievable and rival any mountain grown yamadori juniper in gnarliness..Anyway...

Big old boxwood are not easy to dig, but can work up into outstanding bonsai.

Additionally, if you look in the right places, you can find pretty amazing and sizeable specimen Korean box (which is really a cultivar of Buxus microphylla--or Japanese boxwood). This variety is grown for landscaping in huge quantity in Florida. I've seen massive single trunked specimens of this used for bonsai taken from landscape nurseries. I've got one that's four inches in diameter and a foot tall that was grown at a truck farm in N. Fla. I've also got a six trunk clump of it that I've been working for eight or nine years now. It's a pretty nice tree and looks alot like an azalea. It hasn't "poodled" on me, as I deep prune it to push buds on the interior of branches. A big mistake with box is pruning only the outside silhouette, much like shearing a hedge. Don't do that

It's not all that hard to make bonsai from the larger boxwood cultivars. It just takes a little more elbow grease and a little understanding of how they work. If you have an aversion to cute little boxwood, dont' despair...

Oh, by the way, carving does NOT always look contrived on big boxwood. It is entirely appropriate on some specimen trees. The look of ancient oak includes rotten dead hunks of old wood. Old Boxwood will oblige with the capability to carry such deadwood visually, only the wood will not rot. It also will not carve easily. Be prepared to buy a series of bits for your Dremel or high-priced carving tool. Even the Tungsten burr bits I bought from Dale C. make slight dents on the wood....

bonsaial1

Thanks Mark. I have no doubt that an extra few hundred years can build some magnificent specimans indeed. Out here in California landscapeing as far as home adournment is realitivly new, maybe 80 years or so. Being in Virginia, the cradle of American history, our forefathers brought over a landscaping mentality from Jolly ole Britan and planted many hedge rows that we just don't see out west. To see a 200 year old boxwood in California would be pushing it a little.

While I agree with all those remarks, a few pictures would go along ways towards better understanding your thoughts. I for one have never seen a really masterpiece boxwood. Here, or in Europe.

For a guy that does not really appreciate boxwood, I have about 100 to remove next year. Many have trunks in the two inch+ range. One hedge row is 30 feet long and the other is 80 feet long.

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__________________
A tree a day...thats all we ask.

rockm

To see a 200 year old boxwood in California would be pushing it a little."

But seeing a 40 year old boxwood wouldn't. That's the kind of landscaping material that is readily available almost anywhere. Doesn't have to be 200 years old, or come from the U.K.

The big Korean Box I have are under 30 years old. I'll try to post a photo of the smaller one. I have trouble posting photos here, but I'll give it a shot. Masterpiece it ain't, but it's not that bad and it ain't a Kingsville...

rockm

To see a 200 year old boxwood in California would be pushing it a little."

But seeing a 40 year old boxwood wouldn't. That's the kind of landscaping material that is readily available almost anywhere. Doesn't have to be 200 years old, or come from the U.K.

The big Korean Box I have are under 30 years old. I'll try to post a photo of the smaller one. I have trouble posting photos here, but I'll give it a shot--anyone want to help me resize the photo. I don't have photo editing software...

Masterpiece it ain't, but it's not that bad and it ain't a Kingsville...