boxwood grafting

mrhaney

I recently acquired several small boxwoods and I plan on starting their training in a few months. These will be my first real bonsai experience (other than the two mallsai it took for me to learn that juniper can't live indoors).

I've read on this forum that boxwood is generally considered a "non-grafting" bonsai because of it's weak bark, and that scars are apparent for many years, if not indefinitely. I was wondering what anyone thought about fusing 3-4 small boxwoods together to, eventually, work on a grand oak style. Would the scars be too horrible?

Also, (probably a newbie question) if I were to wrap the trunks to fuse them, would I have to wait to start styling it with guy wires?

Thanks

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rockm

"These will be my first real bonsai experience "

Why would you want to begin with such a complicated, probably fruitless process? Why not simpoly start off with a larger tree? Boxwood can "fuse" but it's not an easy, nor a short process. The plant is thin skinned, alignment of cambium bark is needed for the trees to knit together. you have to know where that is and how to use it.

It would take five years--probably more like 10--before this process yields anything--if you've done things correctly--which you probably won't seeing as this is your first try at it.

You cannot guy wire them as you risk pulling them apart. You cannot really do any bonsai work on them during the "fusing" process. You want free, unhindered growth in that situation to close wounds. It will take a very long time of free growth (decade or so) with such material to get anything worthwhile.

Simply get a larger boxwood to work with if you want a larger trunk. In buying smaller plants and "growing them out" to become bigger bonsai, you are taking a very long route which is unecessary. Larger bonsai are not grown from smaller bonsai. They are cut down from larger plants.

mrhaney

Wow, I didn't really expect that.


I'm definitely save bigger bonsai for when I can get bigger stock. Thanks for the reality check.

Also, for beginners, is it easier to work with bigger or smaller plants?

rockm

"Also, for beginners, is it easier to work with bigger or smaller plants?"

Depends on what end product you're after. Younger plants make smaller bonsai. Larger plants make larger bonsai.

Graydon

What you should be after is more developed stock. Not bigger nursery stock but pre-bonsai stock. Something that someone that knows about bonsai has worked on for a while. The level of development is up to you (and your budget...). A good start would be something that has been grown out for a while and had a few chops to refine the trunk and/or branching structure. This way you at least get something that appears to be a bonsai, or will be soon. Even a crusty old timer tends to stay away from raw nursery stock without special features, and it takes years to be able to spot those features.

I can't tell you where to go in Alabama to look for it, are there bonsai clubs in your area? If so join it, for no other reason than there will be people more experienced than you and will know where to get things.

My biggest mistake as a novice was to think I was ready to take nursery stock and create a bonsai. I created lots of messes, some that never lived.

By the way - love the name. Green Acres was one of my favorite shows in syndication. Still laugh when I see it on Nick at Nite.

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mrhaney

I obtained these boxes by a friend giving me a small "bush", and as new growth has pretty much stopped here, I basically set the clump in a pot to chillax until spring. Since then, one of the boxes in the middle of the clump has died (they weren't being taken care of, hence I got them).

My question is this, should I remove the dead tree or let it stay until repotting the clump in spring? The main problem is that removing the dead tree will mean basically repotting the others.

Also, thanks for all the help so far.

There is a bonsai club about an hour away that I'm looking into joining.

Graydon

It certainly won't hurt to leave it. If the look of a dead plant in the group is bothering you just cut it off at the soil line. Best not to bother until spring.

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