Big Boxwoods and lots of them.

don

I've just finished transplanting 22 old boxwoods from an old hedge to my yard. now I'm looking for information and pictures of boxwoods to help me plan the next step to take . Any suggestions?

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rockm

Leave them alone for a while to recover. If they're older than 10 years and you've removed considerable amounts of roots, they will need more than three or four years of recovery.

I've dug a few 200 year old boxwoods from a nearby plantation. I've found them to be decpetive in recovery. I've had them push new growth, but produce no new roots. They lived on reserves for two years before dying.

Do not push them. They will slowly decline if you start pruning them or folling around with them before they have a chance to recover.

don

When I dug them I placed them in root stimulator and let them soak for twenty-four hours. I am hopeing that this will give them a kick in the pants root wise. I won't fertilize untill some new growth hardens on each tree, and then lightly on the foliage. Does this sound like a good plan?

rockm

"Root stimulator" won't do any good and/or won't provide much of anything. Did the same 24 hour soak routine with mine. Didn't do anything. The most critical thing you can do in digging these is get fibrous roots. The more the better. If that means taking a huge root ball, so be it...

Did the fertilizer thing too. Didn't help. The number of feeder roots left is all important. If these were dug all at once and put into nursery pots, you may have some significant losses ahead...If you dug them with alot of root ball and put them back in the ground, things may be better.


The problem is you won't really know which ones really survived until two, maybe even three years out. Stay emotionally detached from them. Don't fuss with them. You are probably in for a long haul.

The oldest box I dug stayed green and even pushed new growth every spring for two years, until the third spring, when it just collapsed and turned brown in a couple of days. Pulled it from the training container and saw it had not produced a single new root. The plant had survived through simple momentum and stored energy...

marija hajdic

In my experience of collecting boxwood, I dont have any problems even without "root simulator". Not even one died. They have numerous superficial roots, so digging is quiet easier, then with some other species. You can't miss success if you don't touch fine roots. Boxwoods love well drained soil.

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Ralph

I am with Maria, I have also dug boxwood hedges, and had no problems. Just made sure I got a good chunk of the roots.

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Emerging from winter slumber
Bonsai trees burst buds anew
Spring is upon us!


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grampz

I have read and re-read this thread several times wondering what might have been the problem that rockm had with the collected boxwoods...I have always considered them along with the bald cypress to be amoung the easiest trees to collect and keep alive...I have asked myself was it possibly a cultivar I have not worked with...Perhaps a 'sempervirens' variety English or American Boxwood...I do not have any experience with cultivating these varieties as bonsai, although I have had success with them in landscape...I also have not worked very much with the Korean variety...

Most of the experience I have had with buxus as bonsai has been with several cultivars of the 'microphylla' or Japanese variety...I have found these to be very easy to collect and keep alive in pot culture because of their tendancy to have a very compact massive root system...They have an abundance of feeder roots very close to the trunk, and have always seemed to regenerate roots very well after collected...

I also have asked myself did the trees rockm collected possibly have an infestation of nematodes, which would explain the results of his effort...

I am very interested in learning the experiences of others with collected boxwoods due to the fact I currently have over 30 Japanese Boxwoods, ranging from 25 to 80 years in age, in my garden all in pots or grow boxes...These were all collected late last winter and early spring, with no apparent problems other than the normal winter color change in older foilage...I have been working several of them over the past year because in my past experience this has not been a problem with newly collected buxus...Some have even had more than one repotting...I would hate to think the effort I have put into these trees will certainly result in their death...

I have had extremely good fortune working with these in the past, and consider them to be very hardy for bonsai culture...I hope rockm will share more complete information concerning the boxwoods he collected, and others that have experienced problems or success with collected buxus will share their information also...

Regards
Behr

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he could have sworn he heard some
one saying rather loudly...
"I thought he would never leave"
San Antonio Bonsai Society, Inc.

rockm

"I am with Maria, I have also dug boxwood hedges, and had no problems. Just made sure I got a good chunk of the roots."

I can't really see the reason for the "I am with" part here. I said basically the same thing Maria did. The difference in my post has to do with the consiration of the plant's age. Don doesn't specify what "old" is. My definition of old is over 100 years, which complicates collection of any species.

I have dug very very old boxwood in the past and have noticed some issues that should be noted. Old boxwood plants don't have many feeder roots close in, and not many "superficial" roots to speak of within two feet of the trunk. Hence more care is needed with them to get as many feeder roots as possible. Even then re-rooting can be spotty. This can be avoided to some extent by digging such plants over a three year time frame, allowing it to regenerate a new root system without removing its old one all at once.

Older boxwood in North America are also under attack by a strange relatively new condition called "boxwood decline." This condition attacks older boxwood and kills them slowly. It's attacked box hedges at George Washington's Mt.Vernon in Va. and other historical sites here. The specific fungus or organism causing the disease is still being investigated, but it seems to be spreading. The condition may also affect collection in the Middle Atlantic states, so it's something to keep in mind.

rockm

Here's a link that might help in transplanting the box you have. There are some tips to keep in mind in boxwood care in general, like "no misting" etc.:

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcul...hru/boxwood.htm