The Creation of a Boxwood Forest

In the summer of 2007 I visited an old nursery in Lexington...Roof's Nursery. The owner had spent his life in the business and now had pretty much cut back to just selling sod. However, he still maintained some personal nursery stock that he had been growing for quite a while:) After spending some time talking to him about bonsai I finally got his permission to look at his personal plants. He had the remains of lots of good stuff...Boxwoods, Camilias, Gardenias, Crape Myrtles, to name just a few. Most of it was in need of a good repotting about 10 years sooner.

What he would sell was very reasonable...I spent a couple hundred dollars with him. One of the things I got that I thought had the most potential were 9 or 10 really old and nicely trunked and barked Vardar Valley Boxwoods. Great root spreads and very nice natural deciduous like branching made these a must for me:) I think they were $6.50 each!

Because of the condition of the potting...a couple of these trees didn't even have any soil remaining...the very first thing I did was repot. I mercilessly cut the large roots back.. to point that someday I could use this material in a shallow container for a forest. I believe firmly in a piece of wisdom that Bill V shared with me early on...He advised to go ahead and make all the risky cuts that need to be made now so the tree can be a bonsai later...that way you do not work on it for some period of time and then have the material die during a drastic root pruning trying to get it into a container. I also significantly reduced the foliage...70-80% removed. I placed these trees back in nursery containers with fresh soil. In spite of it being mid summer, they responded wonderfully with lots of budding and growth.

The following spring I was finding it difficult to keep these trees well watered. So, I actually planted these boxwoods, nursery container and all, in my growing bed. The trees immediately responded again with vigorous and healthy new growth:)

I have been trying hard, but struggling, to envision what this forest might look like while the trees were still in the ground. Last week I made the mistake of purchasing a large enough mica oval container to possibly house the forest I wanted to create.

Know it was out of season so just as "an experiment" mind you;) I pulled one of the boxwoods from the ground. A plethora of fine roots filled the pot and poured from its holes. Soon it was too late...I have already dug and pruned up most of these trees. Why not just take a peek at they might look in that pot??? Hmmm...looks pretty good!!;)

Crap...I have done all the work now...I can easily protect this forest from the summer heat and sun...might as well go ahead and finish it!!:)

This video shares some photos and describes the process...please enjoy and I encourage your comments.