How do you stop a bonsai boxwood from blooming? Let me teach you a few practical methods.

Boxwood bonsai has become an artistic treasure for its small evergreen leaves, slow growth and resistance to losing shape. Generally speaking, the material for boxwood bonsai is mostly taken from wild old stumps growing by the water. Wild old stumps bloom and set seed very easily. Some people think that boxwood blooming is very "spectacular" and is a great sight.

The author currently keeps more than a hundred pots of wild boxwood stump bonsai, and through years of management practice and careful observation, the author has found that boxwood blooming is not a good thing. This is because boxwood blooming has three disadvantages:

First, it ruins the leaf appearance. The bud stage of boxwood is long, lasting from August of the previous year to March of the following spring. The fine, dense buds are tucked among the leaf axils, affecting the elegant leaf appearance. Especially before and after blooming, the chopstick-head-sized flower clusters hide the leaves, making the emerald green scenery lose its luster. The pale yellow, fine, dense small flowers are also not attractive and have no distinctive feature. What is even more serious is that on stumps that bloom profusely and set much seed, the leaves age at a suddenly accelerated rate; often when the flowers are blooming profusely, the leaves already show a faded yellow color. The leaves on some branches may even all fall off.

Second, it affects the growth of new leaves. The comparison results show that on stumps that do not bloom or whose buds were removed in time the previous year, a new flush of leaves can still appear that autumn. In March of the following spring, the first new leaves sprout at the proper time, and in May the second flush of new leaves sprouts. But on stumps that keep their buds and bloom, not only do no new leaves sprout that autumn, but in the following spring new buds emerge at least a month later. In particular, the timing of the new leaves is not uniform: branches without flowers sprout first, those with few flowers next, and those with many flowers even later, with a difference of more than a month from start to finish. This not only ruins the unity and harmony of the scenery, but also affects the stability of the tree shape and increases the number of times it must be trimmed.

Third, it weakens the tree's vigor. Plants need a large amount of nutrients to bloom, and although this can be replenished through fertilizing, it cannot solve the problem at the root. Especially for boxwood, which is mainly grown for its foliage, to keep its leaves green and bright, the nutrients should be concentrated even more on the care of the branches and leaves. The author has found that stumps that bloom profusely often show the phenomenon of "branch dieback," that is, some branches densely set with flowers have their leaves fall away, and after blooming the branches also become "dumb branches," not sprouting new buds and gradually weakening and dying in the days that follow. From this it seems that boxwood bonsai is better off not keeping flowers. So when is the suitable time to remove the buds? The author's experience is: around New Year's Day (in the Hunan area) is most ideal. This is because boxwood buds are small and numerous; removing them too early is inconvenient to do and easily damages the leaves by mistake; too late, and the goal of nourishing the leaves cannot be achieved. But if you want the stump to put out another flush of new leaves in November, then you must remove the buds in September when the buds appear. After removing the buds, apply a top dressing, and the goal can be achieved. However, generally speaking, unless it is to renew the leaf appearance for an autumn exhibition, do not let it sprout new leaves in autumn. This is because the new leaves find it hard to resist the frost and snow of severe winter, and instead affect the tree shape and tree vigor. If the timing is too tight, postponing bud removal to February is also possible. But it must be done before the flowers open. Observation shows that when buds are removed at this time, the leaf color turns green after one week, and after two weeks new buds begin to sprout in the leaf axils.