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It might sound strange, but a tree needs to learn to live in a pot, and that takes some time. A year ago a large boxwood took the first step in the process (you can read about it here) and it was about as gentle a transition as there could be — you know, considering it just got cut from the ground, had many of its roots severed and most of its branches removed. After collection, this plant went back in the ground!

The image above is from last spring and shows where it spent the past year. I dug a hole in the clay soil of my yard, and planted the boxwood in it with sand. The hole was, in a sense, its first pot. Roots could grow past the borders of the hole if so inclined, but mostly grew into and through the loose particles of sand.

It did well last year, so I have decided to take it a step further by removing it from the ground and putting it into a training box.

If you need some scale, that’s the handle of a full size garden spade behind it. Do you see all of that new growth on top of the main trunk? Wow!

When it was first collected, a lot of soil was washed from the root ball, but today’s work made it evident that there was still a lot of original soil that needed to be removed.

After lifting the root ball from the hole I used a root hook to loosen the soil and sand. You can see in the image above the distinct difference between the lighter sand and darker original soil. As part of learning how to live in a pot, that old soil will need to come off.

I spent quite a while gently loosening soil and washing away as much clay as I could. It made a muddy mess, but will be well worth it. To be able to control moisture and nutrients, and ensure the health of the tree, I need it to be in a fast draining mix. The clay dirt is the opposite of what I want.

I also took this chance to do a little bit of root work. In this case, I only removed thick roots from the bottom. This helped flatten the bottom and helps it fit and sit in a pot (or box) better.

I wired it into the box tightly and filled in with a fast draining inorganic mix. Because of all of the root washing, it was very important to spend some time working the new soil mix into the roots with a chopstick.

Getting into the box was my main goal, but I also decided to clean out that mass of new growth at the top of the thick trunk. I am far from a styling phase for this tree, but the branches burst out in such dense clumps I thought it would make sense to thin the growth so any new growth this spring can be focused on creating some more substantial branches for possible future designs.

There were several areas, like the one pictured above, that were dense with branches going all directions from a single point of growth.

I selected strong branches that were angled at appropriate angles and removed the extras. I will allow growth on these to extend and strengthen these young branches.

You may be looking at this thing wondering what in the world I am planning to do. It doesn’t look like a bonsai, that’s for sure! In fact, I hope to take several air layers as I work the growth back closer to the base. This should result in a number of smaller plants to have some fun with.

Until next time!