Buxus sempervirens is a true garden classic. Box hedging is a popular evergreen that provides much needed structure. As an architectural plant, Box is the perfect plant for edging borders and using as topiary, withstanding frequent shaping and shearing.
We grow, Buxus sempervirens which has dense small round dark evergreen leaves. It is a slow growing plant achieving around 10 - 15cm in a season.
Box hedging can be pruned easily and has the ability to grow from old wood. To maintain trimmed forms and hedges you need to prune them twice a year. The first time should be done around late May to mid-June, after the first growth spurt.
Don’t trim box hedging too late in the season, any re growth needs time to ripen fully otherwise it will be vulnerable to frost damage that will allow fungal spores entry into your plants.
Always water from below so that the foliage stays dry. Also don’t use a high nitrogen fertiliser on your box, excessive soft leafy growth will always favour blight, use a more balanced feed instead such as vitax box feed available from the plant food section on this website.
There is no stopping the march across the U.K. of these greedy little beasts. They are not the kiss of death you read about, you need to keep an eye out especially with the shaped box. A good hard winter will sort the little invaders. If you notice little cobweb-like areas developeing on the outer tips of your bushes, have a poke about and see if they are in there (quite hard to see as they are green) you need to act quickly to kill the little nippers. Unfortunately we are not allowed to sell you the researched cure in this country but good old Amazon has the answer. The product made for this is called Topbuxus xentari. It comes from the jolly Germans with instructions in 50 languages except English. A quick google up on xentari will get you the answers. As soon as it gains the right certificates we will have it available. Perhaps we ought to say that we can't tell you to do this and you should make your own choices. If you are worried spray them with any other catterpillar insecticide and lay it on thick.
A nasty we could do without, but it's one of those things, like toadstalls, it just seems to happen if we get the right weather conditions. In the case of buxus it's wet after warm, like you often get in late summer. You should take precautions when you clip them, like dipping the shears in dissinfectant if you suspect there may be a problem between trimming different plants. Our observations are that you don't get anything like the same problems if you only clip the plants when the next couple of days are going to be dry. It seems clipping when the bush is wet, and stays wet and warm, it creates the perfect conditions for blight. Keeping them fed helps,but with proper box feed. Don't be pilling on any old feed as you could kill them with kindness. Little and often is best and again on a dry day and at the base of the plant. We might be making this sound scary so let's stop there and simply say if you are concerned visit the top buxus website and buy yourself a few tubs of the cure.
Buxus will thrive in shade and full sun alike but take care not to plant in standing water or very wet conditions.When purchasing box plants we recommend also purchasing the vitax box food which is ideal to encourage the plant to grow healthy and also the TopBuxus health which keeps the plants looking green and also helps fight box blight.
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