Boxwood/live oak

After looking terrible all last year, my boxwood-as-southern-live-oak bonsai seems to have sprung back after this mild winter. It is a reared-in-Florida tree, so perhaps it was sulking last summer from the terrible winter we had in 2010. It has a 22-inch "wingspan" and is 4.5 inches at the base, making it one of my bigger trees.



And, I know, you all think it needs a shallower pot.

Hi Jim.
The old oak image is coming.
What i know is, they do not like to be rootbound and will just stand still or lose vigor.
After a repot they thrive again.
I have one in a shallow pot for one year so i can not say much, but i think
when yours would have a shallower pot, it should get each two years a repot.
To much pinching will weaken the boxwood to.
Sunip

JIM,, I Think your ,, oak,,, is looking good.. talking pot if i was to change it would be color not the size. you said 22 in. wide.how tall is it ??? i miss the old oaks in fla. and south ga. they are beautiful trees with the moss hanging from them.. nice tree take care john

Jim, I really like this tree! Beautiful base and lots of interest. It reminds me of trees I saw down south in MS, AL, LA, TN, GA, FL, etc. A wider pot would enhance the "width"/span of this tree. I'm glad it perked up for you.
Best,
Todd

A wider pot would enhance the "width"/span of this tree.

Hmmm. I would think it would do the exact opposite.

John, it's a tad over 12 inches tall from the soil surface.

Sunip . . . I already have to repot every 2 years. I just do not think this would survive in my climate in a shallower pot. In normal years we are much hotter for longer periods (including the night) than The Netherlands ever gets. For this plant, since it was "bred and born" in Florida, it is the winter cold up here in the North Carolina mountains that concerns me the most.

This has been in a bonsai pot since 1999.

This is close to the image I'm shooting for:

Have you considered tilting it a bit to the left?

Nice Jim! And not too far from your image!

Hi Jim
Nice tree. Very natural.
Gretings Pavel

Poink88 wrote:Have you considered tilting it a bit to the left?

Nope. Would mess up the base, which is quite nice.

Here's what I started with back in the late 90s.

Jim Lewis - Western NC - A Fugue is a piece of music where the voices enter one after the other . . . and the audience leaves the same way. Oscar Wilde
JimLewis
Member

A Bach fugue is one of the grandest of the arts to emanate from the mind of man.

Mike Page, who loves the music of Bach

JIM,,, It has came a long way !!! All for the best.. you really don,t have that far to go to have it look like the picture.. take care john

Nice tree (love that trunk and base!), and very interesting to see what you started with!

Food for thought regarding pot size - shallower and wider:



The shallower pot seems to enhance the trunk size and the wider pot even seems to enhance the width of the tree...certainly doesn't seem to make it look smaller, at least to me.

Took a little bit off the left side of the tree to increase asymmetry, not sure...

I understand everyone's suggestions about a shallower pot, but with the amount of root this grows every year, and with our long, HOT summers, this tree simply would NOT survive.

JIM,, Pot size comes up... my opion only i think a longer pot ,not more shallow, would look good.. maybe dark green oval. my trees are in what ever i can get but i do like the roots protected from drying outso my pots maybe are a little bigger than most people want!! take care john

JimLewis wrote:I understand everyone's suggestions about a shallower pot, but with the amount of root this grows every year, and with our long, HOT summers, this tree simply would NOT survive.

Why not? We don't have a problem with it down here. You grow it in whatever makes you happy and comfortable, but boxwoods are fine in shallow pots. How they are cared for is another issue....

Nice boxwood, if it were mine it would have been in a pot like Chris' virt a long time ago.

Oh, well. With me, I guess it'll have to live in this one.

I just found a picture of the tree when it was first potted from the large nursery pot in the late 90s. It was almost a foot taller then.

JimLewis wrote:Oh, well. With me, I guess it'll have to live in this one.

And that's fine. Just pointing out to others that it's your choice and not a horticultural necessity.

Jim....very natural looking imo in the style that you are trying to emulate. Very nice tree. I do like the pot it is in, although maybe a different color - beige/cream tone? I also agree with you regarding a deeper container....although I have attached an image that shows the opposite approach...care with it definitely gets a bit dicey during the summer months....also the tree is a good bit smaller than yours.

Regards,
Tom

Nice job, Tom -- tho I'm surprised that wire bends that branch.

Jim, if you ever want to get rid of this tree......let me know

I love it!!!! This will only get better with time.
Sam

Well, the time is rapidly coming when my bigger ones will have to go somewhere . . . . (But not quite yet.)

I'll be in Durham March 9-11 to watch the FSU-Duke baseball games. Son is an FSU grad. I did graduate work at Duke, so . . . And I get over there for periodic visits to Duke Medical. PM me.

Hypothetically - i.e. taking Jim's concerns about its survival out of the equation - I'd agree with the shallower pot but not a broader. In my eye you need a bit more height to carry off a long shallow pot - the tree is a bit too squat now. Had it remained at roughly the height of the original, then shallow longer would have been ideal in my eye.

But, irrespective of hypothetical pots, it's a nice tree Jim.

In my eye you need a bit more height to carry off a long shallow pot - the tree is a bit too squat now.

But "squat," wide and massive is the hallmark of the species this is trying to emulate.

From the University of Florida:

The national champion live oak was discovered in 1976 near Louisburg, Louisiana. It had a diameter of 11.65', height of 55', and crown spread of 132'. The Florida champion live oak, as given in the 1984 revised list, was found in Alachua County and measured 108" in diameter, 83' in height, and had a spread 150.5'.

Here's another from Google Images. That's a horse and rider in front of it.

Jim: Great photos. you have of the live oaks in this post....also, thanks for the kind words...when I was wiring my little tree I did so while pretty much holding my breath :-)

JimLewis wrote:Nice job, Tom -- tho I'm surprised that wire bends that branch.

Hello Jim,
Sometimes it is almost impossible to bend but i found that at some times they allow a lot.
Sunip