Moving Emergency

Sterling

So I am moving unexpectedley and I had a boxwood in the ground. I planted the bugger about a year ago. It was extremely rootbound so I cut off about a 1/3 of the rootball at the bottom and planted it in the ground. When I pulled the guy out of the ground I could not tell if there had been any new root growth. When it was planted I planted it over a cement stepping stone to flatten out the root growth. It's early summer here in Santa Monica and I was wondering how much work if any I should do to this guy. I was thinking about cleaning up the rootball a little more and putting the plant into a grow box with better soil. Should I proceed with that plan but maybe not touch the roots except to knock out the old dirt?

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Joanie

Don't trim the roots unless you need to, just plant it in a growing box with good soil as you said. No reason to trim just for the sake of trimming!

Joanie

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Mcspeed

Sterling, Jonnie gives good advise, I wouldn't touch the roots any more than necessary than to get it replanted. Only differance I would throw in is put it back into the ground or a nursery tub. Typically in grow boxes you would go to a bonsai soil, this would be ok id you shovel some up and fill in what you need around the tree to fill the box. Mother earth will take care of it for a year, better than you will ( probably) , then you can reapproach it for bonsai. Just going to have that nasty P word, you know patience.

Good Luck
Bill