We use several of these varieties in question, especially the Grace Hendricks Phillips boxwood and the Kingsville’s. The GHP is grown by a few commercial nurseries and is a good substitute for Kingsville. The confusion arises because a lot of the people selling these dwarf boxwoods call them Kingsville because they know that they are worth more and hard to find. Here’s the deal, the real Kingsville was cultivated in the 1930’s and is mainly grown by bonsai people and plant collectors. They are rarely grown commercially
do to extremely slow growth, making them damn hard to find and expensive. The other varieties that are also Microphylla are the Grace Hendricks Phillips boxwood, the Saunders dwarf boxwood, and the less hardy Harlandi boxwood. These first two can be identified by a more elongated leaf and more upright growth pattern, the Harlandi by the vertical grooved bark and tiny leaf. The Morris Midget has a generally larger rounded leaf and is more closely related to the Japanese boxwood, but still make great bonsai.
PS : Rodney Clemens can tell you all about Kingsville’s etc.
Cheers,
Mike Redgrave
Full Moon Bonsai
We use several of these varieties in question, especially the Grace Hendricks Phillips boxwood and the Kingsville’s. The GHP is grown by a few commercial nurseries and is a good substitute for Kingsville. The confusion arises because a lot of the people selling these dwarf boxwoods call them Kingsville because they know that they are worth more and hard to find. Here’s the deal, the real Kingsville was cultivated in the 1930’s and is mainly grown by bonsai people and plant collectors. They are rarely grown commercially
do to extremely slow growth, making them damn hard to find and expensive. The other varieties that are also Microphylla are the Grace Hendricks Phillips boxwood, the Saunders dwarf boxwood, and the less hardy Harlandi boxwood. These first two can be identified by a more elongated leaf and more upright growth pattern, the Harlandi by the vertical grooved bark and tiny leaf. The Morris Midget has a generally larger rounded leaf and is more closely related to the Japanese boxwood, but still make great bonsai.
PS : Rodney Clemens can tell you all about Kingsville’s etc.
Cheers,
Mike Redgrave
Full Moon Bonsai
Thanks Mike,
That’s very helpful.