Newbie on boxwood trimming

My first post on DG, although the lurking has been great!

My wife and I moved into a condo with some nice but really under-tended trees/shrubs.

First reclamation project is this boxwood which is a mess. I have done preliminary pruning to get rid of the most egregious strays, but I don’t want to do anything too dramatic without getting some advice.

The biggest priority for me is going to be to get the bottom bits to fill out -- I have a feeling this will be a long term project.

Any suggestions?

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zone 6b

megalli:

That there's a free-range boxwood. "You'll never take me alive!"

It seems to be holding some unfortunate little perennials hostage around it's base.

The vigor of shoot extensions made me wonder if it was really a Buxus and not some cultivar of Ilex crenata, but it appears to have opposite leaf arrangement.

Award for understatement of the year; you should get a plaque from DG:

I would just grub this individual out, and plant a new specimen of a dwarfer denser growing clone, like 'Green Gem' or 'Green Velvet'. The pruning advice would still be the same for either species: if you really want this to be a rescue project.......you have to make some initial hard choices.

•How tall do you want this plant to ultimately be?
•How wide do you want this plant to ultimately be?

Since you want the base of the boxwood to "fill out" with new growth, then you have to discourage growth in other arenas. That means heading back. Since this plant is such a misfit, I'd go the severe route and cut the tallest stems back to a foot or more shorter than the ultimate height selected. Plan to provide moisture and fertilizer to the plant to encourage lush new growth after the harsh pruning.

Of course this is going to make the plant look, well, even more unlike a boxwood for a while. You'll have plenty of time to consider your actions, and whether you wish to keep after this course. Observe where the new growth emerges next; you should get ample new sprouts along the stem(s) that got cut back, as well as some new shoots from around the base. From this point on, continue to prune back the longest and most vigorous new growth so that the parts of the boxwood form that are the most vacant can fill in.

These plants can be rather resilient. As long as it's healthy, you can just about whack it any way you want. It will be a long term process. Unless you like boxwood up around the gutters (now there's a line I never thought I'd type: hey, my gutters are clogged up with boxwood leaves), then bringing it back down to earth sooner will get you much farther along towards your goal of a compact full plant.

I am one who thinks plants have feelings. This boxwood has been growing nicely all this time and deserves another chance. I would remove all the lower competition around its roots and give it a good pruning to about two and one half feet. See if you like it. If not, then perhaps it can be moved elsewhere.

Great advice above from both. It looks (maybe) like Korean boxwood to me, which for us seems to grow that way naturally. Can you transplant it to a place where it can continue to grow in its natural form? Or if not, can you gradually limb it up into a very small tree and underplant with compatible perennials?

Guy S.

I don't know what a 5 gallon boxwood costs in Scarsdale but surely not more than $50. I could buy it for about $20 maybe. The one thing my very experienced fellow DG-ers didn't comment on is just how long is a long time. I don't think that specimen will be really what you want for at least 2 years, maybe 3 or 4. If you cut it back now you will have a stump, or a trunk with flat topped umbrella till next year, 2007 it will grow more horizontal branches coming out of it but still be ungainly, and maybe in 2008 you'll get enough branches that you can prune it to the shape you want. It might take till the summer of 2009 to be honest.

If on the other hand you start with a 5 gallon shrub, it will look nice all the way till you find the size and shape you like. If you go for a larger shrub you could be home free from the very beginning.

If you can, I'd opt for replacing it, and trying your hand at remediating it in a corner of the yard.

In 2003 I started remediating an old hedge of lilacs that had gone to 12 feet tall and the legs looked about like your box. This year they are almost what I want in terms of filling out and blooming heavily. But I still had to continue shaping this year by cutting them heavily again. If they grow in like I think it will have taken 4 years to re-shape that hedge. Boxwood takes pruning much easier than lilacs but still - it is a pretty long term commitment to reshape shrubs that have gone this far out of bounds.

The one thing that does come of remediating is that you will know a lot more about shrubs and their habits than you expected and you will have watched the plant revive itself which is rewarding and fun.
If you do choose to save your current shrub, I'd also lightly root prune it, and give it a recommended dose of a plant food formulated for acid loving plants. I like to use Hollytone on my evergreens. After beating it up, you need to make sure it gets enough water not only through the summer, but also through the winter. Root pruning consists of taking a garden spade and cutting a circle around the shrub to cut off roots that have gone more than a foot or so outside the drip line. That along with feeding should stimulate root growth closer in to the plant. I did this with a grouping of Chamaecyparus this year and its working well. Last - I just started using a new product called Messenger - which you can read about at the website at Eden Bioscience. I don't have pictures to post but I'm seeing some good results in terms of denser leaf growth on the evergreens.

The verdict is in.

First of all thanks to all of you for the good advice.

The fact is that a Westchester condo does not have a lot of room for re-locating plants. As freakish as this guy is, I didnt want to just uproot it.

So I decided to do some vigorous trimming back and see what happens. We are doing quite a bit of perenial planting around the boxwood and that will have to suffice untill...June '09 or thereabouts. I also feel like the experience of waiting it out will be a good way to test/strenthen my revival skills.

Meanwhile here is a picture after the haircut....

Thanks again.

It does not look too bad. Water it well and it may surprise all of us. I am glad you're giving it a chance.

Surprisingly good! There is a thread on the Curb Appeal Forum where a guy posted a photo of a holly he cut off and he said it was shape-able in about 2 years. Good job on the pruning.
Andrea

Box can be pruned any amount you like (even to a stump) and it will re-grow, so your results will work fine

Resin