Pruning a Boxwood

This video shares several tips for pruning boxwood bonsai material. This plant started out as 3 gallon nursery material 2 years ago. I have been pushing the growth back toward the trunk and reducing the overall size through pruning.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• bonsai
• boxwood
• pruning
• jgeanangel

[DavidJosephChapman]

John, can you cut back hard on boxwood? I have on at a local nursery that has great trunk but is 2.5-3 ft tall. The trunks look like I need to cut back to where they would be no more than 1 ft

[jgeanangel]

@DavidJosephChapman You have to be a little careful with hard pruning boxwood...you should always leave some green when pruning. Boxwood also seem to take longer to recover from severe pruning. For sure, they are not like many plants where you can prune back to just a trunk...no leaves, no buds. They are capable of back budding but it just needs to be done in stages.

[tbalsillie]

Great video; oh boy does my boxwood need some major work. Does heat affect when you should be pruning boxwood? It is very hot and dry here these past few weeks.

[jgeanangel]

@tbalsillie Of course it does...often pruning will expose leaves that are not ready for the sun and hence they will burn if the tree is put right back into full sun. To be safe I typically keep my trees partially shaded after a heavy pruning...until I start to see new buds developing...if it's just a light pruning they go right back on the bench.

Thanks for watching! John

[Allboutnothing]

hello nice vedio, i just started bonsai my self i dont know much bout it i was wondering what do you mean when you say anything growuing down much be pruned?

[tbalsillie]

@jeremynorbury Will have to look your flickr account.  I definately think this poor boxwood has had it!

[jeremynorbury]

@tbalsillie I find that the leaves on these, once discoloured, do not recover their original colours. My trees on flickr: jeremy_norbury

[tbalsillie]

@jeremynorbury Thank-you John for the responce. Poor boxwood is looking rather brown, but then it is nearly 105F here today (and has been for days...water every day...and hope it will be back to "normal" after things cool down.

[jeremynorbury]

Nice starting material = nice chance of making a decent bonsai.

[133trevor]

nice.... great video!