I live in northern VA. This is zone 7a. The summers here are warm to hot…80’s to 90’s.
On July 9th, I’m having a project done to my home that requires all the plants and trees in the pictures be dug up and removed. Most of them are Kingsville boxwood that have been growing there for 15+ years. Some started as cuttings, others were mature trees already 10+ years old when planted. I want to save the better Kingsville trees as bonsai. There is a crepe myrtle tree in there as well. I haven’t decided what to do with it.
I need to know what I can do to give these trees a chance of survival when I dig them up in the next week or so. Your suggestions please…
My best advice would be soak the area hard. Dig and leave in shade either burlaped or nursery pots n pray. Wrong time of year but they will have alot of vigor being in the ground that long n alot of love n attention.
Yea my suggestion was going to be to get a big old root ball, burlap it. Keep them in a shady spot, then next spring you can open up the roots a bit and actually get them into pots.
Dig up bigger than the root ball.
Keep them in a fabric pot or plastic basket that allows drainage on the sides and bottom.
Place them on humidity trays or shoe/boot trays with gravel to the rim, and water.
Keep in morning sun, noon and afternoon shade and lots of mist.
Water at around noon time and before sunset during summer.
You can hardwood cut crape myrtles and keep them in a misting box and get them to root and produce foliage, so I would think you could keep this one alive.
Double check me on this, but with the CM you can prune it back so the roots don’t have as much foliage to support. Then you can root those hardwood cuttings even MOAR bonsai!
Edit: prune off any flowers and flower buds you see to keep more energy in the tree. Flowers waste it all!
even MOAR bonsai!