Creating Box Bonsai

[DrSmith]

I had a huge pot of box (buxus) I once got from a bin when someone cleared his garden. It was multiple trunks and massively root bound. This year, I tried the following: I dug around the trunks with a trowel and slowly pulled some of the box out of the pot. The mass of existing roots was so extreme it wasn't easy to lift the pot. I sawed through taproots and also wooden, thick roots. In the end, I winded up with three box tree, twin trunked and with smallish feeder root balls. I potted them all in dishes. I didn't bother with cat litter or akadama or anything at all fancy as I suspect these trees are voracious feeder and will accept any soil, more or less.
So far, they seem to be taking. I plan on leaving them for aosme time to see how they bud.
I also have a Sawari Cypress that was really sick some time ago so I planted it in the ground for two years. It's now totally healthy and ready to dig up but I have to find out what the best soil is and be sure not to shock it as I did some years ago. It took many months for the leaves to turn green again.

[iamurthman]

Hey Dr., good score on the buxus. Sounds like the makings of a nice grove. They are aggressive rooters and work really good for exposed root projects. Back budding is profuse along trunks and branches when prunned. To thicken foliage don't clip the ends of branches. Leave the leaves on the tip and remove the leaves from the stem. This will cause the stem to bud in several buds and then you can cut the tip off.
The Sawara, like most cypress, will not tolerate drought, so a soil mix with a bit more organic matter, 60/40, is preferred. One thing about these trees is they do not like to get chilled after working the roots, so to avoid this work them later in spring and keep them protected until the weather warms.