DescriptionPlanting InstructionsAfter CareDelivery & Guarantee
Box Hedge Plants - Delivered by Mail Order from the Nursery with a 1 Year Guarantee
Common Box, Buxus sempervirens, is a native evergreen hedging plant that is great for low, ornamental borders and topiary. It has dense, fragrant little leaves that clip beautifully and tolerate full shade. It is slow growing, so makes a low maintenance hedge. Our box plants are grown outdoors and they are clipped for extra bushiness.
Grown freely, a boxwood tree will reach about 8 metres tall but it will take a very long time doing it...
You can also buy Dwarf Box bushes here, which are better for low hedges and edging under 50cms tall.
Box hedge plants are delivered bareroot during winter (Nov-March) and pot-grown year round. Bareroot Box bushes are cheaper than pot grown plants. Pot grown Box is available in the largest sizes.
Choosing a size: When you are ordering Box plants for a hedge, we generally recommend that you use small plants. They are cheaper than large plants, easier to handle and they will establish well in poor conditions. Use larger plants if you want a taller hedge quickly, if you want instant impact or if you want to clip them as topiary plants. All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).
Spacing a Box hedge:
Plant bareroot Box hedging at 5 plants per metre, 20cms apart in a single row.
You can plant the larger pot-grown Box plants at 4 per metre, 25cms apart.
General description of Box plants:
Boxwood is found growing wild in the South of Britain. It is a shaggy, mop-headed small tree or large shrub, often with lush side shoots growing all over its trunk. Because it is quite slow growing, box is most often used for short, decorative hedging, but given enough time a box hedge can become a grand sight, over 6 metres high with thick, springy growth down to ground level.
Box has tiny yellow-green flowers, hidden at the base of the leaves, which attract bees.
Box is an excellent plant for shady places and it will tolerate poor, dry and compacted soils.
Deer and rabbits do not eat box.
History & uses of Buxus sempervirens
Boxwood timber is prized for inlay work, being very hard and close grained with a warm yellow tone that polishes well. Boxwood is also used to make the best mallet heads, both for the carpentry shop and the croquet lawn. Most of us can remember the old yellow boxwood school rulers, sometimes with a list of kings and queens on the back. The best boxwood is used as an ivory substitute.
Box trees are considered a sacred plant in Georgia, where Box twigs are taken to church on Palm Sunday to bring protection to the home and good luck to the family. Boxwood oil was used in the past to try and cure epilepsy and leprosy, sadly without success, and for some time it was used to try to lower the fever caused by malaria when quinine was unavailable. Although it is has been discovered that all parts of the plant are poisonous to humans if eaten, homeopaths believe that it is a treatment for rheumatism.
Box hedging is traditionally clipped on Derby Day in early June, although we think that it is much better to clip them in mid-winter. Good exercise on Boxing Day as long as it is not freezing.
Growing Box plants:
Box will grow well in poor, dry soils including chalk and it thrives in shady conditions.
It will not grow well if the site has poor drainage and gets waterlogged, but it will grow in heavy clay either on a slope or on the top of a ridged bed where the drainage is good.
Prepare your site before planting:
It is good to dig over the area where you plant a hedge several months in advance, especially if the soil is poor. Destroy the weeds first: nettles, brambles and ground elder are tough and a glyphosate based weed-killer is the best way to remove them. Then dig the soil over; remove rocks, roots and other rubbish. Mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 1 spade. If your soil is rich, you don't have to dig it over, but killing all the weeds is still necessary.
Watch our video on how to plant a garden hedge for full details. The plants in this video are delivered pot-grown, but planting out bareroot stock as a formal hedge is essentially the same.
Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting. Start in early March as long as it is not freezing and aim to keep the ground damp, not sodden.
Hedge Planting Accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Roundup weed killer.
You can buy a hedge planting pack with sheets of mulch fabric and pegs to hold it down.
Box does not need a bamboo cane for support, better to erect a barrier until it is established if your site is very windy. No need for protection as rabbits and deer won't try to eat it.
If your soil quality is poor, we recommend improving it with well rotted organic matter and if it really is bad you might also use mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of new trees and shrubs.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.
After you have planted your box hedge, the most important thing to do is water it in dry weather. You will also need to weed around plants. Watering should be thorough, so the ground is soaked and you should then let it almost dry out before watering again.
Like all evergreen plants, Box is active and needs moisture in the ground throughout the year. This means that if the weather is dry in the winter when they are planted your establishing plants need to be watered.
Trimming Formal hedge plants: Box is a slow growing plant and it needs foliage to help it establish, so please do not clip it at all in its first year.
In the winter of the following year, your young hedge should be trimmed lightly and every winter after that until it is mature.
We recommend clipping box hedges in December on any day when the temperature is above freezing.
Special notes on caring for Box hedges:
Box is a very tough hedge plant that shouldn't need special attention once it has established. If you didn't use a mulch fabric, it is beneficial to mulch around the base of the hedge each year with well rotted manure or compost.
Hygiene & Diseases:
Dead, damaged or diseased wood should be pruned off as soon as it appears.
Disinfect your pruning tools between every cut if there is any sign of disease.
Burn or dispose of any diseased material, do not compost it.
Regularly sweep under the hedge to remove dead leaves.
Read our full terms and conditions here.
Delivery: The basic delivery charge for orders of bareroot plants is £9.49 + vat, which increases to £12.55 + vat if you add any pot-grown plants, standard trees or fruit trees to the order.
Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
You can choose the delivery week that suits you during checkout and we will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.
Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.
Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.
Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted hedging must be watered in dry weather while it is establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week if there is no heavy rain.
Our nursery has been supplying container grown and bareroot hedging plants to gardeners, farmers and town planners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying hedging plants online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.
Your 12 Month Guarantee
If any plants die within a year, we replace them if you have followed our instructions. You only pay for
the delivery of the replacements.
Place an order for £250 excluding VAT and delivery and we deliver it for FREE!
Bare-root Plants are only delivered in the winter season, from November to March. Pot grown plants can be delivered all year round
Advantages of Bare-root plants:
You pay less for the same size plants.
You can carry and plan them easily.
You only plant them in winter, so they need less maintenance after
planting. The rain will water them for their first few months.
You get the biggest selection: Many trees are not sold pot-grown.
They are "asleep" in winter - this is the best time to transplant any tree.
They use fewer fertilisers & fungicides, less water and fuel in their production & delivery.
Advantages of Pot Grown plants:
Pot grown plants can be delivered & planted all year round.
Plants with tender roots & larger specimens must be delivered in pots.
Plants in pots can be kept for months longer if there is a delay in planting.
Our Advice to You:
If you can't wait to get planting, order Pot grown plants now.
If you are not in a hurry, order bare-root plants for delivery this winter. Simply add them to your basket and choose a winter delivery date that suits you during checkout.
This will reserve your plants before they sell out.
We won't charge you until the day before delivery, so cancelling your order is always easy.
If you are only ordering chemicals and other small items, delivery is £3.50
Our delivery charge for most bareroot plants is £9.49 + VAT.
If your order contains any standard sized trees, fruit trees or pot-grown plants, then the delivery charge is £12.55 + VAT in TOTAL.
If you live in the Scottish Highlands or the Isle of Wight, there will be an extra charge of £15 + VAT on top of the appropriate basic charge, as listed above.
If your order is over £250 exc. VAT, there will be no delivery charge.
If you are uncertain, just add items to your basket which will calculate the basic shipping charge for you.
