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Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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Posted by
sam_md z7 MD (
My Page) on
Tue, Aug 7, 12 at 13:06
I just did a forum search of boxwood and saw many questions from boxwood owners about pruning, disease, dog damage, winter damage, transplant problems, fertilizer, questionable ID, among others.
The two English Box in the pic were planted just after WWII. The owners want to sell them. They have essentially been untouched for decades. Why are they doing so well when others fail? This is near Baltimore MD
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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| because they were planted and ignored.. like most shrubs should be ... lol sell them??? .. for real??? .. or are you pulling my/our leg/legs???? ken |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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| The boxwood at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington DC are enormous and gorgeous, and not too far away from those in the photo above. 
I think that they can get big if they have what they need, and Ken is right - no transplanting, no pruning, no fertilizer, no dogs, mild winters and that eliminates most of what you note as problematic. If they get enough water and are in the correct zone and are allowed the time necessary to attain size, well, there you have it! Personally, I wouldn't mess with success - I wouldn't move them but defer to those who have had experience moving shrubs of this kind and size. |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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| Gee, how do they get down that sidewalk??? Professionals should move them, for sure, and good luck. |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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| I don't know about them being the mother-of-all-boxwoods; that size isn't all that uncommon around here. At least in the pictures, they do look healthier (good coloration and fullness) than I often see. The overgrown nature of the ones in the picture aren't doing anything good for the home, but the ones I often see, that are that big but with dead branches and gaping voids, really look awful. |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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| That pic is a perfect example of "wrong" landscaping, IMO. The alternative would have been an ongoing pruning battle, an unappealing prospect. If something much smaller had been planted there, no "regular" pruning would have been required, nor the walkway rendered useless. If I was a burglar, I would definitely notice that house. You could spend as much time as necessary breaking in without ever being noticed. I would never have any bushes big enough to hide behind near my front door like that. If they can get somebody to pay for that mistake, wouldn't that be something?! I don't have any input on their health, sorry. I can tell you these things are extremely hard to kill if you don't want them. Takes years for the roots to give up. |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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| Yeah, I wasn't focused on the house - I have to say it never occurred to me that that was the front door! Yikes! |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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For a variety of reasons the front entrance of houses today is not the main entrance. It has to do with where the auto's are parked, and how the dwelling is oriented on the property.
Back to my OP. I'm asking why these box appear to be remarkably healthy? A few years ago I visited a lime kiln dating back to the colonial era on a nearby property. I'm betting that this area has pH neutral soils unlike my area, 20 miles away which has acidic soils.
How much does pH effect the health of buxus? The American Boxwood Society states The pH needs to be in a proper range in order for the nutrients to be available to the plant. The optimal soil pH for boxwood is between 6.5 and 7.2 Another online reference for buxus states that nematode infestations can be remedied by liming the soil and raising the soil's pH to 7.0
Isn't it possible that so many of the problems causing boxwoods to decline are due to too low pH? |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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| Purpleinopp, ever heard of glyphosate (RoundUp, Gly-4, etc, etc) or triclopyr (Brush-b-gon, etc, etc)? If you treat the freshly cut stump of a boxwood (assuming you want to leave the stump in the ground), killing them is a piece of cake. In almost all instances, one application and done! |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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| Of course I've heard of those, not how I roll. Thanks! |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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- Posted by bboy USDA 8 Sunset 5 WA (My Page) on
Thu, Aug 9, 12 at 13:33
| Pair in first picture liable to be 'Suffruticosa'. Same as with many dwarf and slow-growing conifers and rhododendrons, pieris etc. examples of this cultivar are little things when you first put them in, continue the slow growth after establishment. But even when annual increase is on the small side, over the course of ~65 years it adds up. |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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Here's a third reference to pH from literature of English Boxwoods of Virginia in Lynchburg English Boxwoods prefer a pH of 6.5-7.2 A soil analysis is always recommended to determine the existing conditions of the soil...
I'm determined to think that many of the maladies of boxwood are magnified by planting in acidic soils. |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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| When I was a kid, I would love to have shrubs like that. I would pretend the space between them where the sidewalk is was a cave or a fort. Good times... |
RE: Mother-of-all-Boxwood
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| My first thought was "that house sure has a nice pair" sorry I have nothing intelligent to contribute. |
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