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Charente, France Fr

Buxus and the bad haircut!

Can this buxus be renovated?

It has had a hard life...
It started out as a tiny plant in the corner of a raised bed. Then it was dug by builders only to be rediscovered, with a friend, over a year later in a plastic bag under a pile of rubble.

Two years ago I over-trimmed it in an effort to make it the same size as the other one...so, I didn't touch it last year...then it spent the tail-end of last summer without water when I went away.

Some of the dead bits are actually beginning to sprout again...and some are not.

What's the best thing to do? The poor thing deserves a chance.

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Answers

 

Thanks Snoopy,
that's what I was thinking, but I wasn't sure...
...hadn't noticed the bare roots!!
Soil up to just below the lowest leaves?

13 Jun, 2012

 

I had almost exactly the same situation with our poor buxus the year before last when we chopped down great swathes of juniper, and found that it had been almost covering a rather nice box bush and the shade had killed off most of one side. It was either time to uproot it and throw it out or give it a radical haircut. The haircut seems to be working. As Snoopdog says, cut hard on the dead bits and with luck the new shoots will come in and fill the spaces. Mine still looks like Edward Scissorhands on a bad day and needs a trim, but the powers of regeneration are astounding, and you can always shape it up a year or so down the line.

13 Jun, 2012

 

How about feeding it, no later than this month though as you want the new growth to harden up a bit before the winter, as its in a pot could you give it some winter protection, pot and foliage.....

13 Jun, 2012

 

Thanks Gattina...I might have to incorporate the holes into the overall design...
...not so much "boule" as modern sculpture...lol! ;))

It was quite happy in the winters before I viciously attacked it, Pam. But, I will feed it...as soon as the darn rain stops...
And, it won't do any harm to give it a wee blanket this winter, since it's been through so much. Thanks! :))

13 Jun, 2012

 

you dont want soil up to the lowest leaves only enough to cover the roots is plenty .

13 Jun, 2012

 

Hello Nosey! How nice to see you on here again! How are you?

13 Jun, 2012

 

Thank you, Nosey :))

13 Jun, 2012

 

your welcome x .

13 Jun, 2012

 

:)))

13 Jun, 2012

How do I say thanks?

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