Buxus from the Corbieres

A month ago I had the opportunity to buy this yamadori Buxus which was standing in this pot for more than 2 years. I bought it for its nice movement in the trunk, and the stunning shari. Height of this tree is about 60 cm...









Last week I had some time to start working it. I decided to style this tree with only the first branch, because this one had the best movement. My choice to work only with the first branch was not only improving the taper of the trunk, but the rest of the foliage was a bit too far away from the main trunk. If I decided to use the other part, there would be a very long straight piece of trunk, and it was also impossible to bend this part back to the base.

First thing to do was to bend this branch back to the main trunk. But to protect this branch, I first wrapped it firmly into raffia, and then wired it with a 4 mm wire. After bending it more into its new place, I secured the position with a little guy-wire.



To have a better view during the styling of the tree, I reduced the size of all the other remaining foliage by putting some wire around it, and placed a white towel over it. All unwanted, dead and unnecessary branches were removed. I heard before Buxus has a bad reputation for having fragile branches, and I can only agree with this. Although I was very cautious during the wiring, I still lost some minor branches during the wiring process. Especially the smaller branches are very brittle! Suddenly I felt lucky because I had only one branch to wire…

Before the styling started I tilted the tree a little bit forwards, to bring the crown more towards the viewer. Then the fun part started, styling the tree. For me it was very important to show as much as possible of the beautiful dead wood features on the trunk. And fortunelately for me, the nebari is also at its widest with this front! I placed the first branch on the right just over the place where the dead wood on the trunk stops, and worked out a nice foliage pad around the trunk. In my opinion, this will make the viewer a little bit curious for what still remains hidden under the foliage. Than I made the first branch on the left as a counterweight branch, and after this I worked out the rest of the crown. As always it is hard to capture the result of a first styling with only two dimensional pictures, but I hope this picture will show the result properly...



My apologies for the white towel on the picture. I did not remove the rest of the foliage, because I want to be absolutely sure that everything goes well with the part I styled, before I remove it. If something would go wrong with the styled part, I still will have a backup plan for this tree. So here it is for now, I hope you like this first styling! Personally I am very satisfied with this result…

Regards from Belgium,

Hans

Hy Hans,

I would leave the longer branch in place,
not only for the recovering, they can be quit difficult,
but you might find yourself reconsidering the drama of the longer branche.
I know the little branche has to grow and fill in a bit
but i feel the tree lost a lot of his rare story as it now shows from the images.

regards, Sunip:roll:

Hi Hans

Very nice tree and good work.


But if I would I would try a little clean up lines. Maybe?


Pavel

I agree with sunip, the tree lost part of it's story without the main trunk.
Can you tell us what the tree have on that trunk with more detail?
"...but the rest of the foliage was a bit too far away from the main trunk. If I decided to use the other part, there would be a very long straight piece of trunk, and it was also impossible to bend this part back to the base..."

How about a literati or a semi-cascate?

Regards, Miguel Costa

Maybe this helps explaining my choice...



I drawed the three main branches on this Buxus in three different colors. I used the blue one in my design, because I felt this branch accentuated the twisting trunkline the most. It was certainly the most flexible branch to use. The reason I did not use the orange trunklin in my design, is because it extends the trunk too much in my opinion. It is possible to bring back the foliage a little bit more, but not as deep as in my design. (Or you have to let it grow further for some years) And if you look at the other pictures, you can also see it goes far to the back, what was another disadvantage of this branch. It would not be an impossible design, but I think this tree would loose lots of impact if I would go for design 2. (orange) I think the first branch had the most "story" in it. The third branch (green) was not usable at all for me, I already pruned that branch..

@Pavel: thanks for the virtual. If bonsai was this easy. I think it is possible to place the foliage a little bit more to the right using a guy-wire.



This could 'clean up' the line a little bit more. But I sure can't take a piece out of the trunk, and glue it back together. Or maybe I could, but I don't think this is the way to go...

@Miguel: I don't think the rootbase would allow a semi-cascade for this tree. Remember these are just 2D pictures, and this is a first styling. Virtually, there are always a lot of options, but IRL they are pretty hard to realize. I have chosen this design because it was the most logic one for myself. There are some things that still can be improved over time, but that is for later...

Regards,

Hans

very good purchase ! Right choice for your shaping ... Pavels fine tuning is good trend for your nice tree

Thank you for the explanation!
Yes, it's true (trying to glue it), perhaps in the future. I wish i had this "future method" when i was starting in this art
I still like the tree.

Regards, Miguel

I really like your styling of this Buxus Hans. Extremely brittle and stiff to move and a good Idea in leaving the second and third option on the tree.

Hi Hans.

A very interesting tree. On the design part, I'd go with Pavel on what he has suggested. Simplicity can be very striking and attractive sometimes..

Ravi