But English box is extremely slow growing and therefore more expensive than its American and Asian counterparts. Is English box the best choice for your garden?
Photography by Britt Willoughby Dyer, except where noted.
What’s so special about English box?
English boxwood is a multi-stemmed, shallow-rooted shrub covered with small, rounded, glossy, dark green leaves.
English box takes readily to pruning and shaping, a trait that has made it popular through the ages with gardeners who use it to create ornamental hedges, borders, barriers, and all sorts of geometric as well as fanciful shapes.
Where did English boxwood come from?
Boxwood is one of the oldest plants to be cultivated by humans. The shrub can be seen in designs for their courtyards.
Probably the most famous gardens associated with English boxwood are those at Versailles, but lots of well-known examples exist right here in the U.S. For instance, Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, and Williamsburg in Virginia both have examples of colonial era boxwood plantings.
Why did English boxwood become so popular?
Frenchman Louis Benech is known for adorning sweeping vistas with understated boxwood rectangles.
“Box is the very best for smaller scale topiary and billowy cloud pruning, but blight has become a real problem,” says Jake Hobson, a topiary expert and cloud-pruning specialist who owns garden tools shop Niwaki.
Photograph courtesy of Niwaki.
Hobson’s tool of choice for shaping English box hedges is a pair of Japan-made Masamune Shears, which Hobson sells in his Niwaki tools shop.
How bad is the boxwood blight situation?
Today many gardeners are having to re-think their use of English boxwood. Besides pests, (box tree moth, leaf miners, mites, scale) and diseases (rust, root rot) that have traditionally plagued this plant, there is now a major scourge attacking boxwoods throughout the world.
While all types of boxwood are vulnerable, Andrea Filippone, who specializes in growing boxwood and has been studying the blight, says English boxwood is especially at risk.
How can I keep boxwood healthy?
Because there is currently no blight resistant variety of boxwood, be sure to follow these preventative guidelines for the boxwood you choose for your garden. As with all plants you buy, patronize a reputable nursery, preferably one that is growing its own boxwood.
Balls of Buxus ‘Green Gem’ grow in a Brooklyn garden. Filippone advises home gardeners to think carefully about how they will use their boxwood before they buy.
What are the best boxwood alternatives?
Photograph by Matthew Williams for Gardenista.
Photograph by Matthew Williams for Gardenista.
One recommended variety is Buxus sinica var. insularis ‘Justin Brouwers’ (in the foreground) which is a good, small, dark green plant that works well in low hedges, parterres, or knot gardens.
Non-Boxwood Substitutes
Photograph by Clare Coulson.
Clipped annually, 14-foot-high Taxus pyramids at Wollerton Old Hall in Shropshire are hardier and grow faster than English boxwood.
For topiaries, “I use things like Phillyrea latifolia as much as possible—it’s not as good for smaller shapes, but makes a great 5-foot-plus plant,” says Hobson of Niwaki.