Renovating old Kingsville boxwoods

Last fall, the generous people at New England Bonsai outside of Boston, Massachusetts in the US referred a caller to me. This gentleman had over twenty bonsai that hadn't been repotted in years. Although they were all alive, he knew they needed work. When we spoke last fall I suggested we talk again in early March.

Last week he drove down with over a dozen trees. We spent four hours trimming and repotting small bonsai, including a nice shohin kingsville boxwood. I sent him home with some akadama, lava and the knowledge to repot some of his other trees. A few days later he returned with two of his largest specimens.

My constraints in working these were both time (his budget is limited) and vision (they had to stay "attractive" enough to enjoy. He doesn't want trees that are so thinned that he can't enjoy them now).

I found an inexpensive chinese pot for the smaller one. The larger one was repotted into the pot that the smaller one began in. Hope you like the work.

First, the smaller one.

This is the larger tree. Final dimensions are 24" wide and 15' tall from the nebari.







I hope to see these trees again later in the season. Although he isn't interested in joining our club, I'll make sure I can work on these trees again this season and next.

Great work Mike!! Thanks for sharing!! Man--you just had to make that Kingsville jones worse didn't you??

Congratulations! mature trees and very nice......good job!!!

Hi Mike. very nice tree, congratulation .

Pavel

Very nice, did he say where he got them. I have one that was pulled out of a garden in Washington DC. There is good ramification on these kingsvilles.


Shimsuki

He didn't mention the original source. He had some up to 18" high he had grown from cuttings. He gave me two as partial payment for the work I did.

I love these trees, but I enjoy them more in other people's collections. As much as I enjoy working on them, they're just too much work for me to keep in good shape.

Mike Pollock wrote:He had some up to 18" high he had grown from cuttings.

Wow, he must be older, kingsville grow so slow.

I know what you mean about kingsville. I have one and it is pleanty for me.




Shim

Mike Pollock wrote:I love these trees, but I enjoy them more in other people's collections. As much as I enjoy working on them, they're just too much work for me to keep in good shape.

I am surprised by this. I thought they grow slowly. What type of work do you mean?

Rob,
Kingsvilles grow larger slowly; shoots elongate slowly. But they grow in whorls all over the place. So they take meticulous pruning to keep them clean, growing in the right directions, and knot-free.

Here's one of the trees given to me as partial payment for the other work in this thread. This has been growing in his garden for over 20 years. I dug it up Wednesday and potted it. Then reduced it to balance its root loss. It needs more thinning and detail wiring, but I'm going to let it rest for awhile.

Great work. i really like these.

Really Great! (if I may say...)