howdy y'all,

well i recieved a boxwood malsai for my birthday last week it was a high quality tree nothing spectacular but i did want one for my collection. i did a repot and replaced most of the mulchy soil with my bonsai mix pruned and wired it and it is doing well and showing plenty of new growth.
my issue is it is in a growing phase and has what looks to be flower buds forming. this means it thinks it is spring and winter is on its way here.

my question is ...is it feasable to keep this guy indoors let it grow for awhile and bring it into a dormancy towards the end of winter, early spring so it will miss the harshest of the winter.my outdoor trees will be going into their shelters for the winter soon and will probubly be burried under 4 feet of snow by mid december so it is unlikely it will be ready for that.

thanks y'all ...keith

Boxwood produce small star shaped yellowish green pistillate (female) and staminate (male) flowers on the same plants. The flowers are not showy, but are quite fragrant. The star points are actually sepals - boxwood flowers have no petals. The flowers are in clusters consisting of a single female flower in the center, surrounded by several male flowers, recognized by their conspicuous yellow anthers.
Boxwood do well in partial shade. Dont expose them to full or mid day sun. If you want to prune them late spring is ideal.Boxwoods have shallow roots, so they should be mulched well and watered when the soil gets dry, especially if positioned in full sun. Boxwood cannot be subjected to wiring and so pruning branches is ideal. But in Asian countries a dreadful soil borne disease is found to distroy (dry out) the roots. So always be careful about soil. Do mulching.

Hey Keith,

Belated Happy Birthday to You!

I think your Boxwood has basically been forced into a growing phase primarily due to the pruning you just did on it. If you were planning to treat this Boxwood as an outdoor plant, why on earth would you repot and prune this time of year?

However, it seems you may be in luck. I've just read two information sources on the Boxwood...the first being on the Empire's website (check in the 'Suitable trees' section under the "Care" topic in the main menu). Here it mentions certain species can be grown indoors. The second source is here: www.bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/SpeciesIntro.html Scroll down until you find "Buxus/Boxwood". You will see there are two articles...the first one mentions over-wintering your Boxwood indoors and how to do it. The second article is a little more indepth information you may be interested in.

So, I would suggest following his instructions on how to keep your plant indoors over the winter and it will probably either go into dormancy or a rest period on it's own. Then place it outside in the Spring once the temps. are warmer (above -4). In the meantime, don't do anymore pruning, trimming or pinching (in other words - keep your paws off! )...let it grow wild until late Spring, early summer. Hope this helps.

well it was aready growing when i received it ,i did the repot because the soil was basically pine bark and dirt and would have frozen solid overwinter as i said before tho it looks to have flowers starting but it my be old undeveloped ones ...it going to be a warm week so it may be a late winter this year it is so umpredicable east of buffalo,ny

manofthetrees wrote:

well it was aready growing when i received it ,i did the repot because the soil was basically pine bark and dirt and would have frozen solid overwinter as i said before tho it looks to have flowers starting but it my be old undeveloped ones ...it going to be a warm week so it may be a late winter this year it is so umpredicable east of buffalo,ny

Hi Keith,
It is probably a good thing that you repotted it then. Have you decided whether you are going to over-winter your boxwood indoors or out?

I hear you about the weather...ours is the same. Today is going up to +14 celcius! I wish I didn't have appointments today...I could be cleaning windows!

haha, i'd be working on my car maybe saturday. i think this is going to be the last nice week around here for awhile

Auggghhh...yeah! The inside of my car windows need cleaning too...in fact the whole inside of the car! I have appointments everyday right thru Thursday...then Friday they're forcasting only a daytime high of +5 C with rain/snow showers! Yuck! Too much to do in too little time and/or energy and all I want to do is play *Bonsai*! ...sigh...

yeh ive got brakes and spark plugs. home mechanic is another one of my hats