Boxtrees Nursery

1. Spacing

For most box garden hedges, multiply the length of the hedge in metres by 5 to calculate the number of plants required. This corresponds to a spacing of 20cm (8 inches). So a 20 metre hedge will need about 100 plants, for example.

If it is to be a low hedge, say less than about 40cm high, then length in metres times 6 (16cm/6.5 inches spacing) is better. For tall hedges, over about 80cm high, length in metres x 4 (25cm, 10 inch spacing) is generally enough.

2. Selecting plants

Either bare root or container grown plants will succeed at any time of year. The main difference is that bare root plants are cheaper to post, take longer to establish, and need much more watering if planted in summer. We supply container grown plants all the year round and bare root plants from around mid-October to early April.

Box will grow in most situations. It is happy in acid or alkaline soils, in sand or clay, and will grow in very harsh dry places, or in deep shade. The only environment it is not suitable for is boggy or waterlogged ground. It does grow wild in some very exposed places, but is not recommended as being particularly suited to windy sites.

Dig the ground over well to make a friable soil, and consider adding some organic material, such as peat or garden compost, if the soil is very sandy or very clayey.

With bare root plants, it is best to plant the trees with the soil at about the same level as before they were dug up. You can add bone meal or fertiliser when planting, but the pot grown plants have controlled release fertiliser in the pots anyway.

Water in well after planting, and in hot dry weather during the first summer after planting. Box can stand very severe droughts when established. If it is becoming very dry, then the leaves will temporarily become coppery-green coloured. Once the plant has enough water, the leaves will turn green again.

4. Growth rates

Once the plant is established, buxus sempervirens will grow about 6-9 inches a year under reasonable growing conditions. In deep shade, very poor soil and very exposed sites, the growth rate is lower.

Clipped hedges can be very old. For example some hedges planted in the seventeenth century and clipped to about 35cm still look good with the original plants. Clipped hedges can be anything up to about 3 metres tall.

Old trees eventually slow down and a one to two hundred year old box tree may be around 5-10 metres tall.

Most of the named varieties of buxus sempervirens, and the other species of buxus grow rather more slowly than buxus sempervirens.

5. Trimming

It is best to keep trimming to a minimum until the hedge is close to the desired height. This will enable the plants to put on as much growth as possible. The trees will 'fill out' naturally without being stopped, and the lower branches will eventually touch the ground.

Once the plants reach the planned height of the hedge, cut the tops back to a few inches below the target level. This is best done around mid-summer. Then trim to shape in August or September each year.

Please note that this item is now sold out.

We do have some limited quantities of 'instant hedging', with 5 plants to a 0.8 metre long trough (window box). The plants are 45cm tall and about 30 cm wide at the moment.