Developing A Harland Boxwood

While Boxwood is considered a beginner’s tree in the west, in places like Taiwan it is a well-regarded plant for bonsai. 

A few years back I acquired two Harland Boxwoods from a friend and have greatly enjoyed having them around. This week one of them got up on the workbench.

Harland Boxwood, Buxus harlandii, in summer, before work. This is our first trim of the year.

Trimming shoots. Small narrow leaves distinguish them from other boxwood species.

Branch pad after trimming.  

From the front, looking up. Here we’ve finished the full trim. Fabulous bark on Harland Boxwood.

From the left, looking up.

The back, looking up.

The left side.

View from the top rear.

The back, at viewing height.

And the front. This little one has a ways to go but we stopped here for now. 

Being in early development, we kept the trim inside the future canopy line. This way the plant will ramify inside that and make for a more dense plant by the time growth reaches our goal. A canopy line is a good guide for wiring and pruning. Usually we determine the canopy line by taking a look at the trunk. A thin trunk should have a narrow canopy. A thick trunk like this one should have a broad canopy.

The small leaves of Harland Boxwood make them well-suited to smaller bonsai. This one is a chuhin. The bark is also superb, and develops fast on young plants.

This tree was grown by my friend from a cutting. It was in a large grow box for some years, and it’s been in my garden now for 3 years in a bonsai pot. It’s about 20 years old now.

1-3 year old branches are flexible and easy to wire, older ones are brittle and hard. All the trunk and branch movement on this one came from the early years. 

Taiwanese bonsai artist Huang Seshan with his Harland Boxwood. Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Bonsai Creators Association / Hsieh Juehzhong / Jose Rodriguez.

For more about Boxwood as bonsai, here’s a post from 2017 with notes about a Japanese Boxwood I have that predates my apprenticeship in Japan: A Review of Japanese Boxwood As Bonsai