AusBonsai

Anyone out there had much experience with digging English box? Found that a friend has just recently chopped a huge box down, leaving the stump (which is the biggest box stump I have ever seen!). Anyway, he has given me permission to dig it but it is between the corner of a driveway, corner of a house, and it has a gas pipe running somewhere underneath or near it.

So it looks like I am going to have to dig very shallow, take almost every root off and take the stump out as a big bulb.

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience doing anything like this and what the chances of recovery might be with this species?

Thanks everyone

Webos

Hey Webos I would probably wait till it starts to shoot again, just what ill do.
Have you got a plummer friend just in case? That way you don't have to be so gentle.

Mick

Good advice Mick...I might enlist the watchful eye of a plumber for this one...or dig like a paleontologist with a spoon and a brush.

no advice for except turn off the Gas before you start digging Webos

G'day Webos, from personal experience i have picked up a few old English box from the tip which were ripped out the week before. 60mm trunks, Left them in the back of the ute for two days before potting up, middle of winter, and they all sprang back into life come spring. I do not think you will have a problem if you dig now. Even if you get only a couple of roots they will survive. From my experience you will get branch dieback but they replace them at an astonishing rate.

Thanks a lot Bodhidharma and Craig. For a Box, this thing is a monster...At least 200mm across the base. You've given me confidence, it shall be dug!