This one was dug out of my garden, I don't like the traditional Box rounded shape, it didn't match the "country garden" theme we are working towards in my backyard.
It was left out in the baking sun for a couple of days last year before I took a closer look at it to see if there was anything worth rescuing in there.
at about 4' tall, laying prostrate with no love, waiting for the skip
With Buxus, I know that if you prune you need to leave at least one leaf pair on to keep the branch from dying back, so I washed off the rootball a bit to see what was there and then set about pruning, trying to find a basic structure. I took off as much as I could - but as with many buxus, the inside had all died back and just the outside was alive, meaning very leggy trunks. I reduced it down to 4 main trunks(there were 6 initially - see the scars) and left a few leaf pairs at the end of weach branch, plus a few extras just to ensure there were additional options if any died back.
Then just whacked it in 6" deep of compost and grit over the top of a polystyrene layer (to keep the rootball from going too low and to improve drainage) a pot and left it in the corner of my garden. I didn't leave much hope for it after being left prone in the garden.
The overall idea is to compact the trunks down by chasing back buds.... However long that might take
I also wired down some branches to get a feel for what they could take and how long they take to set. Eventually most of these branches would be coming off anyway, so it was an ideal opportunity to find the boundaries.
Fast forward 6 months, and it was back budding all over like a boss. It pushed out quite fast growth considering how slowly they tend to grow. I pushed it hard with Miracle gro garden spray every other week (26-14-16) and kept an eye on the soil. In retrospect I wished I'd taken the time to make up a proper soil mix. It seems to cope well with both wet and dry conditions, being fairly hardy.
I set about pruning it again mid-late summer and took off some of that really long length, back to new leaf pairs which had popped out. (Sorry no pics, but you'll see below what it looks like now) What amazes me about this species is it's ability to break buds on old wood anywhere. I must have rubbed out 5x the number of buds I kept and it still lives...
long shot of how much I compacted it again, it's in the corner - took off roughly half the height.
I wanted to compact the size as much as possible before developing primary branches and fairly well did that. I think the main issue is that thickening takes years, so this will very much be a tree where the canopy is king. It'll be a test camouflaging those large thick trunks.....
So fast forward to this year and the top of the soil was an inch thick with very dense weeds and moss - impossible to pick off without bringing the whole top 2" off....so a little earlier than intended I repotted it.
I took it out an found some big fat roots which would need cutting back but mostly just a lovely mass of white root - quite different to any other species I have worked on, barely any of it is lignified
Still some old mud cacked up in there, tough to get out.
Problem root needed working back, amongst 4 others
All fat roots pruned back and about 1/4 taken off the longer roots
Probable font....in about 10 years....
Finally in pond basket in well draining but somewhat wet mix
Those long thin branches will be compacted back too, I just need to wait for the right buds in the right places
Free growth for at least one season now.
Not the prettiest tree you're ever going to see and frankly I'm probably wasting my time, but I can't bear to just kill if off, it's a waste of a tree that's alive - plus it's interesting to see what a difference this soil mix makes.
thanks for reading....
'Til next time.
DEJE
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