S.O.R. buxus progression.

[feralpossum]

Long time member, first time poster. I thought I'd start a progression on one of my trees as a way of keeping track of its development, and also to seek some design guidance/feedback.

I found this guy S.O.R. (on the side of the road), along with about 10 others, in October 2022. They'd been ripped out of a hedge and were pretty much bare rooted. I grabbed them all. As it was a hot day, and I felt the need to move quickly (as well as not having enough space) I gave the others away to a mate and just kept this one for myself.

buxus.jpg

The tree was put into a grow pot and allowed to recover for 10 months. On the 4th of August 2023 it went into a bonsai pot. Now I'm just waiting for it to get established and to put on a bit more growth so I can get some wire onto it and begin to style it. At the moment it's a triple trunk with a whole heap of deadwood.

buxus 2.jpg

Does anyone have any suggestions about what to do with the deadwood? i.e. Which jins to leave? What length? Do I carve them or use jinning pliers for a rougher look? Do I lose some of the jins and create uros? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Cheers.

[Daluke]

I don’t like deadwood on evergreens.

Can you split the trees at the base and cut back to live wood?

You have good potential

[feralpossum]

G'day Daluke.

The base of those trees is well and truly fused. It is a nice wide base (~7 inches) with a nice bit of flair and reasonable nebari, so I reckon it would be a shame to try and split them.

As for the deadwood, the tree came with a lot of it. I'm not the biggest fan of deadwood on evergreens either, but like it or not, it is a probably the major feature of this tree. I just have to figure out a design utilises it to its best advantage.

[Promethius]

Hi FP, welcome!

I’m with you - I think the tree has some character and I would not split it either.

It is easy to cut jins later, but you can’t regrow them - so there’s no harm in keeping them for now, while the tree fills out. I would try to add a weathered/gnarled look with pliers or carving at some point; plus, they often end up a bit shorter during that process. I don’t find much benefit to expensive jin pliers over regular ones, and tend to use my cheap Kmart ones. I don’t have experience with power tool carving.

I would avoid wiring until summer. Easy to cause significant damage and lose the branch, cuts in as the branches thicken rapidly in spring.

Thanks for the photos- I look forward to seeing where you take this.

Andy

[shibui]

The current jins appear too heavy for those trunks so definitely need to whittle them down somewhat. Doesn't matter whether you use pliers or carving. Both will end up similar in a few years.
I'd add a shari between the jins on the right side trunk. It will immediately reduce the visual weight of that trunk and allow the upright one to dominate more.
I've marked a rough area on this virt.

buxus .png

I was going to suggest a spiral shari connecting the 3 jins on the upright trunk but that may look a bit forced compared to the straighter one on the right so just see what reducing the thick jins does first.

I don’t like deadwood on evergreens.

Each to their own but are junipers not evergreens? Dead wood on juniper is almost mandatory.
I'm actually finding that I appreciate dead wood on a great many species now, even some of the deciduous species can sometimes look better with a hollow or shari.

[feralpossum]

Thanks Promethius and Shibui for your encouragement and advice. I will continue to update this thread over the years.

[dansai]

I do like shibui's suggestions. However I wouldn't be doing any work on this tree for another 12 months. You collected it not even a car ago and have repotted just recently. Let it recover, grow new roots and get strong. Then think about more work. Wiring, and even more so, carving, is going to stress the tree and you will also be moving it around quite a bot as it tries to re grow roots.

[shibui]

Well said Dansai. I meant to include that advice to wait in my post but got carried away with options and forgot to add waiting.

[feralpossum]

Thanks Dansai. I’m not in a hurry. I will definitely give it the care it needs. Just starting the conversation so I can contemplate it each day with my morning coffee in the back yard.

[CalebH]

Hi all. I have seen that bonsai can recover quite well. If you found it on the side of the road and it survived, it can recover well.
I would like to ask, is this Buxus suitable for a beginner?
I have some plants at home, but not bonsai. I would like to try growing bonsai. Maybe there is a beginners section on this forum to ask around some more?

[feralpossum]

G'day Caleb,

In my experience buxus are pretty hardy, so that's a good thing for the beginner. You'll often find people selling them after ripping out their hedges. In fact I picked up another two a couple of weeks ago - thrown out at the tip.

Buxus also have small evergreen leaves, nice bark, and a predictable growth pattern, all of which make them good for bonsai. They are, however, pretty slow growing, which can be frustrating. Have you thought about giving privet a go? They share many of the qualities of buxus, but they're much quicker growing.

[CalebH]

G'day Caleb,

In my experience buxus are pretty hardy, so that's a good thing for the beginner. You'll often find people selling them after ripping out their hedges. In fact I picked up another two a couple of weeks ago - thrown out at the tip.

Buxus also have small evergreen leaves, nice bark, and a predictable growth pattern, all of which make them good for bonsai. They are, however, pretty slow growing, which can be frustrating. Have you thought about giving privet a go? They share many of the qualities of buxus, but they're much quicker growing.

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I am considering different options. If you say that Privet grows faster, then I should pay more attention to it. Is this already discussed somewhere on this forum?

[feralpossum]

Try searching 'privet' and you should find heaps of matches

[feralpossum]

Here's a privet that I dug from the side of the road. It had been run over by a ride on mower, but there was a nice little tree lurking inside it...