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| I have a 5' tall green mountain boxwood that was severely squashed by last winter's snows. Many of the branches were broken and at the breaks the bark was all peeled off, sometimes for 5 inch stretches all the way around the stems. Rather than prune it in spring and have these large bare areas, I decided to leave it in its crippled but still somewhat symmetrical form and enjoy it till the broken branches turned brown.
Well, the broken, barkless stems put out new growth, and by July I decided to tie up the broken stems and give the shrub back its nice form. I thought bark was necessary for plant health-- are boxwoods an exception? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Mon, Aug 22, 11 at 8:50
| bark is a protective covering.. say like a catchers shin guards ... its the green cambian layer just below the bark .. where the fluids move thru the plant that is important .... perhaps not scientific.. but thats how i think of it.. w/o pics.. its hard to give you any further opinion ... if you dont remove .. or properly prune out the damaged branches.. dont you think this winter is going to be worse on the structure of the plant??? it was a neat experience to observe how your plant responded to the insult.. but you might want to become proactive regarding its future health ... since it pretty late in the season for aggressive pruning.. you might want to get an opinion on proper timing of major surgery ... ken |
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