buxus harlandii shohin

[Jamie]

hey people


here is a small but nice buxus harlandii i styled a while ago, i was waiting for the right pot, i finally found it and it is now in the pot, its nice!
all up the tree is 160mm tall with a base of 35mm, it gets a little straight after the first bit of movement but i think it works well. the corky bark gives it plenty of character!

overall this tree took me about 20 minutes to style, about a month to let it recover in which it started throwing new shoots like made and i had to chop it back, this is when i decided to pot it up! you can tell the new leaves from the old by the lightness of the leaf!

buxus front.jpg

buxus rear2.jpg

let me know what you think

jamie

[hugh grant]

Nice little tree Jamie it looks great and the tree fits in with the pot very well.
Well done

Hugh

[bonzaidog]

Looking good,big guy...the back shot shows a quite heavy trunk high up,would you be able to create more taper there?..Also I'm tilting my monitor to the right on the front shot,it gets the current apex over the base more...Just some crazy ideas ....Dog.

[Jamie]

Nice little tree Jamie it looks great and the tree fits in with the pot very well.
Well done

Hugh

thanks mate i only just got this pot, its made in tokoname i was looking and looking in my stock and thinking about a shimpaku but seen this one that i had basically forgot about, trimmed it up a bit to clean it up and then eyed the pot up to it and it looked good so it went in

Looking good,big guy...the back shot shows a quite heavy trunk high up,would you be able to create more taper there?..Also I'm tilting my monitor to the right on the front shot,it gets the current apex over the base more...Just some crazy ideas ....Dog.

yea it would be possible to chop back quite a lot further to a new leader, and its probably likely it will happen eventually, but i like the way its looking right now, and it went through a bit in the root mass to have it fit nicely, the problem is these get so brittle once the shoots harden of it is quite easily snapped.
the other one i have which i took the root mass down on similar to this one to fit into a pot had a bit of loss on top but has come back quite strong. so i am expecting a bit of sulking from it!
as for tilting the tree over so the canopy is more above the base i thought this aswell, but decided to keep it in more of a slanting position, it just feels more balanced


cheers

jamie

[bonzaidog]

All good jamie!...there's nothing quite sickening when wiring,than to hear that click,click,CRACK!.... ,,, ...Dog.

[alpineart]

Thats a good looking little bonsai Jamie . I have moments like that all to often when i rush or take short cuts , but there the breaks .Cheers

[Jamie]

cheers alpine

yea rushing is one thing i have learnt to avoid, especially working on smaller trees, needing more refinement and details very cautious, very delicate, thats why i wire the shoots at a young age on them as i stated before they get brittle quite quickly, the good thing with buxus is they shoot back well on old wood even with the corkiness of it.

All good jamie!...there's nothing quite sickening when wiring,than to hear that click,click,CRACK!.... ,,, ...Dog.

to right there brother! i have had it happen to me on my juniper literati entry for the comp the one thats left anyways. i think the hanging branch is gonna die back, i did inspect though without seeing any breaks or tears in the bark so we might be alright there hope so any way, other wise its gonna need a full redesign!


jamie

[Jamie]

oh, i should say my plans for the tree are to extend that branch out going to the right longer and make it into a cascading branch, quite long and a bit heavy, but not over powering the tree, just enough to balance the look.


jamie

[NathanM]

Dude,
The buxus looks better in the pot than I expected it would! Nice choice!!
I like buxus, and I have one at present, but haven't styled it. WIll have to sit down at work out what to do with it!

[bodhidharma]

Very nice Jamie. I think the Box is a very underrated tree and not developed enough in Bonsai. They usually have similarities to topiary. The pot suits it well to.

[Jamie]

thanks guys yeah nath i thought you might say that, but seeing is beleiving isnt it

bodhi- i completly agree buxus is an underated species, i dont know why it isnt used more, it has naturally small leaves, grows well in most conditions and climates and is quite hardy to say the least, the harlandii is also good for gnarled corky bark from a young age which gives it a sense of age too. this one was a $10 starter that i fed well and treated it good before potting. i have another one that i styled and potted, it started dropping leaves and i thought "here we go, another one on the way out" but to my surprise it has come back super strong, pushing new growth exactly where i need it and is going well.
i am expecting this one to sulk a little but i am hopeing the old super thrive and seasol will do the trick, the other one that dropped its leaves didnt get that, so we will see how it goes


jamie

[Jamie]

just an update; i removed the top as it wasnt sitting right with me and i have brought the branches down. this has helped with a more aged looked and an overall aesthetic feel. i think so any ways.

Box.jpg

plans are to let it fill out from here, then look at it again in a few months time


jamie

[hugh grant]

Looks great Jamie, you've deffinetally done a good job to improve it thurther. I'm liking alot

Hugh

[Jamie]

thanks hugh!

something wasnt sitting quite right with the tree to me, after some long thinking and some ideas from others this is was the out come
i am hoping to get some very fine ramification on this tree eventually. there is great possibilty for this to happen as buxus can produce the fine ramification.
on a tree this size its gonna make it a task, it is now down to 130mm high. i am not sure if that comes into the mini class yet or not?


jamie

[craigw60]

Hi Jamie,
I am not familiar with this species, is it a rough bark species of box ? Certainly seems to make nice bonsai
Craig