Boxwood bonsai production and maintenance

Materials for making boxwood bonsai

The plants used in making boxwood bonsai can be branches obtained by sowing or cuttings, which have been cultivated for many years and then transplanted into pots, or old stumps of mature plants can be selected for bonsai making. For old stumps, you need to dig them out and prune them first, cutting off the long roots and dense branches. Then you can grow them in the open air for one to two years before you can pot them. Here, special attention should be paid to selecting plants and pruning roots according to the size of the bonsai pot.

Boxwood bonsai potting

Selection of bonsai pots

The best pot for boxwood bonsai is a purple clay pot, and the color of the pot should be purple or light yellow, because this will match the oily green color of the boxwood and is very beautiful. The shape of the bonsai pot should be determined according to the shape of the plant. Different bonsai pots should be used for cliff-style and slanting-trunk styles.

Pot soil

It is best to use fertile, loose, well-drained and ventilated soil for boxwood bonsai. Generally, mature garden soil or leaf mold mixed with ridge husk ash is used as the culture soil. Be careful to keep the old soil when potting the old stump.

Cultivation of Boxwood Bonsai

It is usually cultivated before budding in spring and then placed in semi-shade. It is also important to trim roots that are too long to avoid them being tangled in the pot, which will affect nutrient transport and be detrimental to healthy growth.

The shape of boxwood bonsai

Before shaping, the main trunk should be cut off and new branches should grow out. Then, branches should be added according to different shaping requirements, mainly cloud-shaped, steamed bun-shaped, or natural tree shapes. The main trunk can grow along the way. Because boxwood has a strong ability to sprout, it needs to be pruned frequently to maintain the tree shape.