Source: Condursos Garden Center (NJ)
Size shipped: #3 pot (measured about 1'6")
Planted: #3 plastic pot (a different one), November 2019
First flowering: Who cares?
Buy one at PlantingTree.com (affiliate link; supports this website)
And now for something completely different: a temperate plant I'm attempting to grow INDOORS.
For my own reference, here are the other temperate plants I identified that might grow for me in similar conditions:
Bought on November 17 and immediately moved into my semi-heated basement underneath two shop lights putting out a total of 9000 lumens (since they weren't meant as grow lights, that's the best measure of light intensity that they report) while drawing 90 watts, then root pruned and repotted November 23 using Fafard 52 in a normal #3 plastic pot that I coated the sides of with Micro-Kote (before realizing that might not be such a great idea compared to an air-root-pruning pot, but it should make watering less frequent by comparison). About 4 weeks later, I switched to a dedicated "600W" LED grow light array and returned the shop lights (after realizing that such "600W" lights are actually only drawing 100W, because the 600W rating is meant for comparison to other lights that aren't as efficient as LEDs). It's not much more upfront and maybe a dollar more on each monthly electric bill.
The pot itself is on a stand on top of two tables, to get it as close as possible to the lights (the top leaves are about 6" away). Underneath the stand is a saucer filled with small marble rocks and some water, in an attempt to humidify the immediately surrounding air. On one side of the pot is a white wall, and on the side opposite the wall is a big 50" reflector (silver side facing the boxwood) that I'm not currently using for photography.
A week after the repotting, the highest vegetative buds started bursting; this growth flush continued throughout December. I also discovered that the flowers barely do anything when they bloom AND that they don't actually have vegetative buds hiding behind them. I appear to have successfully cut the boxwood's winter dormancy very short; next year we'll find out if it can truly survive through the year with NO dormancy whatsoever, as my basement probably won't drop below about 60°F.
On January 20, 2020, after the first growth flush appeared to have run its course, I did some more minor pruning, mostly just of vertical shoots, shoots going back into the center, and other shoots that obviously had no future; I waited this long in order to let the boxwood use its new leaves to rebuild its energy stores that may have been affected by the root pruning (though I deliberately held that off until the buds appeared to be swelling, in order to minimize such energy loss). I still want to cut back harder, partially to correct the lopsidedness of the bush and partially to force new branching, but I'm trying to wait until the new growth has definitely hardened off (I'm assuming that, when that happens, it will take the same shade of darker green as the older growth).
February 1 saw another haircut, mostly to alleviate shading of shoots on limbs I want to keep long-term by removing higher shoots on limbs I eventually want to remove or seriously subordinate. Later in the month, to combat the interveinal and spotted chlorosis that was now painfully obviously affecting almost the entire plant, I started spraying biweekly with chelated iron and other micronutrients and also switched my fertigation from Dyna-Gro Foliage-Pro (9-3-6) to Miracle-Gro Water-Soluble All Purpose Plant Food (24-8-16). The switch was because the Miracle-Gro doesn't contain Ca or Mg; we have very hard water (15-18 grains per gallon), so combining it with the Foliage-Pro had in all likelihood been providing too much calcium, which can cause micronutrient deficiencies. By mid-March there was some progress visible, but plenty of pale green still remained.
March 16 is when I went through and picked off all of the developing flower buds that I could find, except on the overweight limbs I don't want to keep long-term -- and I sure hope they actually were flower buds. Only four days later, March 20, after a full week having to work from home due to coronavirus-related policies, I went to town clipping the boxwood back, trying to take the most from the top and from limbs that will eventually be eliminated, and also making some heading cuts purely for purposes of inducing branching.
By April 15, we had settled into a routine that appeared to be working well: with the boxwood on its stand, run the grow light for only 11 hours a day, and keep water in the rocky saucer underneath, with a fan blowing across it to circulate and (with the water) humidify the air, plus spray with chelated micronutrients every 1-2 weeks and pluck off all flower buds as they are found. The boxwood had responded pretty well from the March pruning, continuing to push new growth from many various points -- mostly but not exclusively from the previous year's growth, and many encouragingly low and/or interior -- with each new shoot having three pairs of leaves, give or take. This newer growth has shown no signs of scorched margins (except at the top of the plant) and much less chlorosis than the existing leaves. Watering was with the Foliage-Pro (when dehumidifier water was available) or Miracle-Gro Water-Soluble (when I had to use tap water), whenever a bamboo skewer came out clean down to the last half inch or so, which with the fan running constantly was every four days on average.
On April 20, having let a full month pass since the last significant pruning, I made another major
cut to the lowest limb on the trunk; this limb will be gradually reduced until eventually being
removed entirely at some point in the future, as it's too low compared to the others.
May 12 saw a
light trimming that focused on December-January growth on the outside of the plant that was obviously
unproductive, by which I mean not pushing any new shoots recently; I also snipped the ends off of
some of the new shoots that had gone too far without branching, focusing on those coming from higher
limbs, for to allow the lower limbs to catch up. In the interim I had been continuing to remove most of
the new buds from the lowest limb; the May 12 trimming included cutting back some of this limb's
older branchlets to new shoots that I had actually allowed to extend.
May 22 was another significant trimming, again focusing on the top, exterior, and unwanted limbs. (I am running out of things to say about trimming.) Also, having fallen behind on the foliar spray of chelated micronutrients, I discovered that the bottle also had directions for mixing with the fertigation water; so that is what I did.
August 4 saw another fair trimming, including finally removing the lowest limb completely. Other than that, it was once again focused on thinning out the outermost and topmost growth. I also tried moving the pot off the stand and directly onto the humidity tray of rocks, because the boxwood still appeared to be suffering from perpetual winter burn, and I figured that moving it away from the light source might help with that.
On August 27, realizing that the winter burn was not improving (if anything, it was worsening), I put the boxwood back on its stand and increased the day length back to 14 hours, a few days after having thoroughly drenched the substrate in order to remove what looked like accumulated salts.