How To Care For Boxwoods In Your Garden
Boxwood’s are a great contribution to a formal garden landscape. They really can be shaped into almost any design your heart can think of. Boxes are excellent, hardy shrubs in gardens that keep their vibrant green all year - even in the bitter cold north. Yes, boxwoods desire some attention and some TLC will be needed. Keep your boxwood’s looking great all year with these few simple steps:
1. Avoid a mix and match boxwood hedge. If you have a boxwood hedge that needs replacement it is totally possible to have issue finding the exact same replacement to what you already got. For this scenario, look for a variation with a similarity in the branch. 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. Every area is different, so doing your homework before constructing your new boxwood hedge designs is solid advice. It’s best to find the flourishing boxes that are more resistant to disease and also have a higher tolerance for drought conditions.Northern climates are superb for Korean Boxwoods because this variety is impervious to plant disease.
3. The third thing to discuss here is getting about a half of a cup (per plant) of nice acidic (organic please) fertilizer that has peat, compost, dehydrated manuer and some of that special evergreen food and get it spread out around the bases of your boxwoods. Ignoring the needs of the root systems leads to issues, so each season check them and add the needed compost to help protect, replenish and ensure their safety.
4. Pruning boxwood’s is relatively straight forward but there are a few rules to live by. Never, never, never prune the boxwoods late in the fall, and, always, always, always be sure to let new spring growth “harden off” before you go out give’em that first “hair cut” of the year. 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. People love to see beautiful bright green boxwoods in the winter and will really frown down on the dead brown. Most would agree having dead boxwoods is worse than having a little shag going on.
5. A shallow root system on boxwoods typcially leads to your green beauties browning out rather quickly. So always remember to mulch your boxwood’s. This is going to help the boxes roots to retain the water they do get and protect them. 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 a fine rule to live by even in your garden.
6.Periodically do a check of your boxes for fungal type diseases. Generally quite strong and capable, even boxwoods have been know to ocassionaly be overrun by plant illness. If you think that what you have is more than winter damage you will need to research boxwood’s and disease. Majority of the shrub diseases that are common can be fixed using sprays. It would be a good idea to know for certain what chemicals you need prior to using them by completly investigating your problemed areas. When all else seems hopeless, simply replace the shrub that’s having problems right away. One plant is inexpensive to replace, an entire hedge gets really expensive.
Good luck and enjoy the lush evergreen of your boxes in your formal or not so formal landscape-they are always a great shrub choice for any garden.
For a beautiful selection of outdoor home and garden decor to accent your landscapes, be sure to check out Cool Garden Things with their decorative recycled glass hummingbird feeders and Bird Brain fire pots.
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