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The Latin name for this plant is buxus. Boxwood is an evergreen shrub or tree. They grow relatively slowly. Plant height varies from 2 to 12 m. These shrubs are valued for their beauty and unpretentiousness, but boxwood should be cut regularly. In nature, they grow in different places: in rocky gorges and deciduous forests. Boxwood can be found in Southern Europe, Africa, Asia and Central America.
Since ancient times, buxus wood has been highly valued; chess pieces, musical instruments, smoking pipes and much more have been made from it. Boxwood was also appreciated by landscape designers. Specially bred weeping and dwarf species can turn any garden into a fabulous corner. But for this you need to carry out regular pruning.
On the video you can see a boxwood curly haircut:
Boxwood in landscape design
With proper care, the shrub can live for about 500 years. Its compact rounded crown will become pliable clay in the hands of both a professional and a novice gardener. Different types of boxwood have their own decorative value.
All varieties respond well to pruning. By cutting the branches correctly, you can form regular geometric shapes from the crown: a pyramid, a ball, a cone, and others. Boxwood can be given absolutely any shape. From undersized species, you can create borders and original parterres, they are also used to frame flower beds. Any flower arrangements against the background of sheared boxwood will look advantageous.
Buxus is often used as a background for other plants. It has a beautiful and deep leaf color. This noble shrub is ideally combined with bulldenezh, barberry, roses, geyheyra, lilac. To achieve an original contrast, it is better to select flowering plants with brightly colored petals.
The most popular varieties of boxwood include:
- Aureovariegata. It has elongated ovate leaves that change color: a green tint is mixed with yellow over time. Bushes of this boxwood are resistant to drought and frost, and can grow in some shade.
- Compact A plant with a dense dense crown, consisting of small oval leaves. This boxwood reaches a height of 80 cm. Suitable for creating low hedges, as well as for growing in tubs.
- Marginata. It has beautiful oblong leaves. Each has a delicate border of pistachio color. Boxwood of this variety grows from 2 to 4 m high.
- Curly Locks. Intricately curved stems and leaves give this variety of boxwood a special decorative effect. Great option for a walkway or flower bed.
- Latifoliamaculata. The maximum height is 1,5 m. The leaves of this boxwood look like chameleons: the young ones have a golden hue, and the lower ones, as they mature, acquire more saturated green tones.
When to cut boxwood
You can trim boxwood at home only after two years. During this time, the bush will have time to fully take root and grow stronger. If a low-growing boxwood (about 25-30 cm) was planted in the form of a border, then a small pruning can be done in a couple of weeks, carefully removing the top, but no more than 5-10 cm.
In the southern regions, the first pruning can be started as early as April. If the climate is not too favorable, you should wait for stable heat and reschedule the procedure for May. Boxwood is a slow growing shrub. In most cases, a small amount of corrective pruning of the new growth will suffice. Only heavily neglected and shapeless branches are cut to old wood. A month later, it will again be necessary to prune the protruding branches.
Decorative pruning of boxwood is carried out in spring, summer and autumn. For this, an evening of a cloudy day is usually chosen. Under the influence of the sun, burns appear on the leaves. But young plants, that is, with a rare crown, are not afraid of even the summer heat.
Pruning boxwood in spring
Boxwood shearing in the spring is carried out before the start of active growth. Start cutting from the top, gradually moving down. Small branches are cut on top, they should not disturb the harmonious shape of the shrub. As for the large branches of boxwood, their pruning is done so that they cannot grow young shoots inside the shrub. This makes the buxus untidy.
Regular pruning of bushes is the key to their lush and beautiful crown. After that, the plants should pay more attention, regularly watering and feeding them.
Pruning boxwood in autumn
By the middle of summer, the growth of boxwood stops. However, the movement of juices inside the shoots does not completely stop. Therefore, the active phase of growth will resume again. Shearing boxwood in the fall falls on the end of October or the first days of November. At this time, two periods of growth have already passed, but serious frosts have not yet come. Now you need to prune the young shoots to stimulate their growth next spring. It is enough to remove only 2 cm.
After that, the boxwood is prepared for the winter. The first step is to replace the mulch. The summer version (leaves + grass) will begin to rot quickly. If the bush is not standard, rotting will quickly spread to branches and leaves. Spruce branches and peat will help protect the roots from the cold. The winter sun is a threat to the crown.
Under its rays, shoots resume growth. At the same time, the roots remain in the cold ground and do not deliver nutrients to the leaves. Gradually, they begin to fade. Buxus is covered with a breathable dark material – a piece of cloth or burlap.
Boxwood scissors
To trim a shrub, you will need different tools, each of which has its own purpose. The final choice of inventory depends on how dense the branches are, as well as on their location: at the top, on the outside or inside the bush.
There are several types of cropping tools:
- Battery hedge trimmer. Indispensable for the formation of hedges. The tool is lightweight and easy to use. With its help, the crown can only be given a rectangular shape.
- Scissors for pruning bushes. The long steel handles have plastic or nylon inserts for added comfort. With the help of short sharp blades, bushes can be given different shapes. It is quite convenient to cut them.
- Battery pruning shears. They are designed for cutting hard branches of boxwood. In this tool, several pairs of scissors are combined at the same time, which are driven by a battery.
- Shears for shearing sheep. They cut soft twigs near the boxwood that did not have time to become stiff. Also with their help it is easy to adjust the contours of the crown. The tool is made from a single piece of metal, and the handle is shaped like a heart.
- Pruner. With its help, overgrown bushes are thinned out, not too thick branches and shoots are pruned. The design has two blades: one is a support blade, and the other is a working one. They are bent in a semicircle. With the help of a pruner, a hedge, bushes and borders are formed.
How to cut boxwood
Frequent pruning of the buxus requires an increase in the amount of fertilizing and watering. This will allow the plant to replenish lost nutrients more quickly. Otherwise, the box will begin to lose foliage.
How to cut boxwood with a ball
The easiest way is to use a homemade or purchased blank. It consists of a rod and a wire semicircle. You just need to choose the right radius. It is more difficult to form a bush “by eye”. First you need to trim, giving the shape of a cube, and then cut off the tops, turning the crown into a semicircle.
Another option for forming boxwood on a trunk is to trim the side shoots at the base, focusing on the future rounding from below, and then round the top and sides until the crown acquires the desired shape.
Figured boxwood haircut
The main rule of such pruning is that work must be done from the inside out, from top to bottom. The crown is trimmed evenly, in stages and in small parts. It is impossible to cut a large fragment in one area; when creating a figure, it is necessary to observe proportions.
Boxwood figures:
- Cuba. To form this figure, you will need one or more bushes with a dense crown and dense branches. The whole composition should look organic. To get cubic boxwood, you need to plant one plant in the center, and place the rest in a square next to it. With the help of wooden slats, it is necessary to make the frame of the future cube and trim along it.
- Pyramid. Around the shrub you need to draw a circle or square. Along the perimeter, slats are immersed in the ground, which must be fastened at the top with a rope. On this blank, boxwood is sheared in the shape of a pyramid.
- Cone. The principle is about the same. The slats are fastened with a rope and the branches are cut strictly along them, moving from the bottom to the top.
- Spiral. First make a cone or pyramid. Then the bush is wrapped with colored tape. It imitates the future spiral. In advance, you need to decide on the number of turns and the distance between them. Pruning branches with secateurs is carried out strictly along the contour of the adhesive tape.
How to form a boxwood hedge
Young bushes are initially trimmed the same way. The initial height is 15 cm from the ground. Further, when the shoots grow – to a height of 20 cm and so on. The crown will be dense and fairly branched. In such a hedge there will be no voids and holes, bare lower branches and too thick tops. Such combinations do not look aesthetically pleasing. For one summer season, at least 3-4 such prunings should be carried out. Then the annual growth of the bush will be from 15 to 20 cm. The last pruning is carried out in the last days of August. This will allow the young shoots to mature before the cold weather.
Features of the formation of boxwood
Young plants require frequent pruning. This stimulates the growth of new shoots, the bush becomes more branched and dense. On the other hand, the greater the density of the bush, the more difficult it is for the rays of the sun to break into the center. The inner branches remain bare.
When pruning a bush, it is gradually narrowed from the base to the top. So all the branches will be evenly illuminated by the sun. Dead or diseased branches should not be radically cut immediately. It is better to divide the procedure into several stages so as not to destroy the plant.
A special mesh will help create beautiful and perfectly even borders. It is put on over the bushes and only those shoots that stick out through it are removed.
The leaves and twigs of boxwood contain toxic alkaloids. Any manipulations with the plant should be carried out only with thick gloves.
Conclusion
Beautifully trimming boxwood is a real art. You can entrust garden care to a professional or take the initiative into your own hands. Gradually, you can learn all the tricks of decorative pruning. This is a very exciting activity. From an ordinary bush, real living sculptures and labyrinths are obtained. In combination with beautiful and original street lamps, and various flowering shrubs, an ordinary garden will turn into a unique park with its own unique atmosphere.
