Box

I am looking at getting two spheres of box, is there anything to look out for when buying it or is it all pretty much the same wherever you buy it from? Any ideas on the cheaper places as some garden centres seem to be asking the earth for them?!!!

 

have a look at web-sites for it. e.g. Crocus isn't cheap, but can be relied on, and others are good too. I don't know if there are any good nurseries in your area? Try yellow pages or yell.com for that - you may be able to pick things up cheaper that way. Sometimes they have a minimum order value for non-trade, or are trade only. Worth asking though.

 

Try Evergreen Exterior Services in Purley.

Things to look out for:

1. SEE THEM FIRST!
2. As above

They are often imported without care as they are tough and, more importantly, take weeks to show damage by which stage its your problem. If there is any yellowing on the young foliage, if the colour is in any way dull, if the leaves are tired looking or drooping then walk away as they may have been neglected. Also any dead spots could be box blight, and look for mealy bugs, aphids, leaf miners, etc. They are usually safe plants, but you don't need to buy trouble. If quality matters buy plants that have been naturalised in the UK for a couple of years, but garden centres won't have a clue (nor will Evergreens care) about their provenance and you will pay more for this.

 

Amazing how resiliant they are though - We have this mad woman in our village, she took objection to her next door neigbour digging out her favourit elder flower bush which was growing in one of their gutters, so she poored bleach all over their box hedge!

I think its taken about 3 years, but now just about back to normal.

 

Not v. resilient to Box blight. I had to dig out a quarter of a kilometre of the stuff that I had planted and nurtured for three years. Actually its the imported phenotypes that seem to suffer most, and especially 'sufruticosa'. Don't think anyone sells it any more. Good alternatives to Box hedging would be an excellent topic IMHO. I vote for Podocarpus alpinus.


Gordon Bennett!! Bleach. Poor neighbour

 

I made BIG mistake with my box
1 - included a varigated species
2 - did not feed it enough - they get very hungry
3 - next hedge I planted was the big leaved type

I have loads of cuttings round the garden because I know they can just be lost, but they do quite a godd job for me - hold up my david austen roses

Podocarpus alpinus sounds interesting, I am too far down the line to replace what I have, butwould like to see some.

 

Will try to dig out a photo of it (though not from one of my gardens). I guess buxus has gone from solid and easy to tricky in just ten short years. What a disaster!

 

some of mine may be just over 10 years, but last one was planted a year ago after new build.

some of my old reserve plants I just cut into a shape to look interesting until they are required to fill in, then I just get used to them being there.

I actually quite like the boaring old stuff, but very interested in alternatives.

 

I just have trouble with the effing blight. It's so pernicious in my gardens. I can't cut the hedges anywhere near irrigation unless its turned off for several days, I can't cut hedges or the topiary if there is dampness on the foliage or rain forecast in the next couple of days, and I have to disinfect my shears all the time and they are surprisingly sharp. My hands look lke mincemeat.

 

I have a big box by the car port. Its been there since long before we moved in. Every so often I go over it with the hedge cutters as it blocks my wife's car. No idea what sort it is though.

A few years ago, we rescued my mother-in-law's Cotswold garden. No one had lived in the house for twenty years since her husband died :(


The garden was a nightmare of brambles, nettles and ivy. We eventualy cleared it all and the only surviving garden plants from 20 years ago were paeonies and a box. Tough cookies :D