HelpfulGardener.com

Hey everyone,

so I was in Home Depot a while back, and as usual, they had $5 boxwoods in 1 Gal pots. Given my previous two unsuccessful ventures with boxwoods, and my inablity to pass up that offer, I looked around and found a tree with a good trunk and nebari, as well as what I thought to be plenty of styling options. However, I started pruning the tree, and soon realized I didnt have much of a direction for it. I'm pretty dissatisfied with how the initial pruning went, and I am not considering a trunk chop. (I would, however, have to wait until next year to do so). I'm just here looking for everyone's input/styling ideas. this is what I have so far:

[img]https://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/joelewko/CIMG1862.jpg[/img]


this is the area I was thinking of doing the chop...
[img]https://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/joelewko/CIMG1863.jpg[/img]

Note: the middle branch is actually two branches, one behind the other.

Thanks,

Joe

Perhapse an informal upright or broom style. Maybe you could trim the lower branches and make a Literati.

I would do the chop right above the third branch,
this tree seems a bit flat in its present state.

perhaps you could encourage some branches to come in front and behind the
front you have chosen, I would wire as the new shoots are still green.

I don;t know how brittle Buxus spp are. I love buying starter cheap from big box stores.

Re: "and I am not considering a trunk chop. "


Now considering? I usually never pay attention to anyone's typo's, but this one seems to change the meaning considerably...

luigonz wrote:I would do the chop right above the third branch,
this tree seems a bit flat in its present state.

perhaps you could encourage some branches to come in front and behind the
front you have chosen, I would wire as the new shoots are still green.

I don;t know how brittle Buxus spp are. I love buying starter cheap from big box stores.

I second this. Can we see the plant from the backside maybe?

And buxus are pretty flexible. You can let new shoots go for a long time and still be able to put considerable bend in them.

I actually chopped it earlier this year, and it's complicated to explain exactly how, so I'll try and get a pic up ASAP.

Joe

P.S. RainbowGarden...yeah that was a typo, sorry about that

That wiring is sloppy, be careful when bending because the coils are so far spread out that it will not support the branch at all.

This is the tree after I did a chop earlier this spring...I only chopped one of the 'forks' because I am still nervous about trunk chops I haven't done that many of them (and the ones I have I haven't had much success with )

The tree seems to be healthy, and its constantly backbudding new shoots. The problem I have now is a direction for the tree (I know, I should have thought of that before the trunk chop). I mean, I have a general idea of what I want to do with it, but well I'll just ask, do you guys have styling ideas?

The black tape is there (sticky side out) because when I did the chop, the tree split a little at the fork, so I wanted it to grow back together. As far as I can tell, it seems to be doing that.

[img]https://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/joelewko/CIMG2743.jpg[/img]

Joe

P.S. I just remembered someone requested a picture of the back of the tree, I'll get one of those up ASAP