How to Care for Boxwood's in Your Garden
81Boxwood's are a great contribution to a formal garden landscape. They can be sheared and shaped into just about any shape you can imagine. They are also great performers in the garden, looking lush and green year round even in a northern climate. Boxwood's do require a certain amount of care and maintenance. Keep your boxwood's looking great all year with these few simple steps:
1. Avoid a mix and match boxwood hedge. If you have an existing boxwood hedge it is entirely possible that you will have trouble finding the exact match to what is already there. In that case look for something that has a similar leaf. Boxes come in many different colors of green-so definitely look at what you have and what the nursery has and make some choices based on what will look good together. Otherwise you will end up with some very quick growing boxes that are lime green and some slow growers that are dark green and it will look like a mix and match nightmare!
2. When building a new hedge or landscape, do some research to find a good boxwood for your region. Look for a boxwood that is a vigorous grower, drought tolerant and disease resistant. For example, Korean Boxwood is a variety that grows quickly,and is disease resistant in northern climates.
3. Spring maintenance of your boxwood's starts with the addition of a half a cup per plant of a nice organic acidic fertilizer that includes peat, compost, dehydrated manure and some special evergreen nutrients around the base of the bushes. It is also good to replenish the soil around the roots with compost every few years to keep the roots covered and protected and surrounded by their element.
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4. Pruning boxwood's is relatively straight forward but there are a few rules to live by. Always be sure to let new spring growth harden off before you your boxes their first hair cut of the year and never prune them late in the fall. Fall pruning will encourage new tender growth which will turn brown in the spring and look dead for a few months before the new fresh growth come in. Since boxes are a kind of winter interest plant it is bad form to have big dead brown splotches in them. Better they be a little shaggy than dead looking.
5. Boxwood's have a shallow root system and because of that they can dry out quickly. So always remember to mulch your boxwood's. This will protect their roots and help the roots retain moisture. The flip side of this is to be careful not to over mulch them to the point where you have buried the base of the plant and you end up creating a rotten bark situation that could ultimately kill the bush. All things in moderation is ever a good rule to live by in the garden.
6.Be on the look out for fungal diseases on your boxes. While they are generally vigorous they can fall victim to few problems. If you think that what you have is more than winter damage you will need to research boxwood's and disease. Most diseases can be easily cured with a fungicide spray or an oil soap spray depending on what you are dealing with: mold or insect. Just make sure you diagnose the problem correctly before you start spraying chemicals all over the place. If all else fails just dig it out and replace the offending bush before it contaminates the rest of your hedge. One plant is inexpensive to replace, an entire hedge gets really expensive.
You can also add some garden formal looking garden decor such as a large gazing globe on a wrought iron stand to enhance the elegant look of your formal garden bed.
Good luck and enjoy the lush evergreen beauty of your boxwood shrubs in your formal garden.They are always a great shrub choice for any garden: formal or otherwise!
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Hey Putz!
Thanks, we are glad that you enjoyed this one. Raquel wrote this one as she is our Master Gardener here. She is always giving out such great and helpful tips. I'm happy you found it!
Jeremy
Putz Ballard 2 years ago
Great hub and my boxwoods need some care, they are old and getting pretty big.