Dwarf Box Hedge Plants (Buxus sempervirens Suffruticosa) 1Dwarf Box Hedge Plants (Buxus sempervirens Suffruticosa) 1Dwarf Box Hedge Plants (Buxus sempervirens Suffruticosa) 2

Dwarf Box Hedge Plants

Buxus sempervirens SuffruticosaFeefo logo

The details

Buxus sempervirens Suffruticosa

Hedge Plants
  • Evergreen. Slow growing, tolerant of full shade
  • Ideal decorative, low hedging
  • Max. Height: 1m
  • Pot-Grown Delivery: All Year
Choose a plant formWhat to expect
All
Potted
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each
Qty
£
£ 5.76

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Description

Buxus Sempervirens Suffruticosa Hedging

Delivered by Mail Order Direct from our Nursery with a Year Guarantee

Dwarf Box, Buxus sempervirens Suffruticosa, is a small, slow growing evergreen shrub that is perfect for low, ornamental hedging, usually along the edge of a flower bed or in a decorative parterre. It has lush, densely packed, bright leaves that clip neatly and suit topiary. Our box plants are grown outdoors to keep them hardy and have been clipped for extra bushiness.
Dwarf Box grows about 2-3cm per year and, after 30 odd years, it can reach about 1 metre high.
Dwarf Box is good for hedges under 50cm high; we recommend using the more vigorous Common Box for edging and topiary projects over 50cm tall.

Dwarf Box bushes are only delivered pot-grown, year round.

View our selection of evergreen hedging or see our full range of hedging plants.

Choosing a size: When you are ordering Dwarf Box plants for a hedge, we generally recommend that you use the smaller, 15-20cm tall plants. They are cheaper than large plants and they will establish well in poor conditions. Use larger plants if you want a taller hedge quickly or if you want to clip them as topiary.
All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Spacing a Dwarf Box hedge:

Plant Dwarf Box hedging at about 7 plants per metre, 14.3 cm apart. You can also get good results with planting at 6 per metre and if you plant them at 8 per metre, you will get a thick hedge more quickly.

General description of Dwarf Box plants:

They are pretty much the same as Common Box, apart from their slower growth. The leaves are slightly brighter green. Box is one of the few plants that actually prefers growing in partial shade over full sun. It will tolerate any well drained soil and can grow near the sea.
Dwarf box is most commonly used for precisely clipped, knee-high decorative borders; it is sometime called Edging Box. It also looks good in a pot, trimmed into a neat geometric shape.
Dwarf Box plants do flower but, as there are no petals, you will probably only notice the bees that it attracts. Rabbits and deer do not eat box.

Did You Know?

Box is a native plant and the Suffruticosa cultivar was bred in 1753. It was given an RHS Award of Garden Merit in 2002.

Planting Instructions

Growing Dwarf Box plants:
Dwarf Box will grow well in any well drained soil. It is very shade tolerant and suitable for exposed locations near the sea.
It will not grow well if the site is too damp, especially during winter.

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 or compacted. Destroy the weeds first: nettles, brambles and ground elder are tough and Neudorff WeedFree Plus 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 2 spades. 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 is essentially the same.
Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Hedge Planting Accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Neudorff WeedFree Plus.
You can buy a hedge planting pack with sheets of mulch fabric and pegs to hold it down.
If your soil quality is poor, we recommend using mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of new trees and shrubs.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.

After Care

After you have planted your Dwarf Box hedge, the most important thing to do is water it in dry weather. You will also need to weed around the plants. Watering should be thorough, so the ground is soaked. Let the soil almost dry out before watering again. Watering & weeding will be necessary for at least a year after planting.
Like all evergreen plants, Dwarf Box is active and needs moisture in the ground throughout the year. This means that your establishing plants need to be watered in the winter when they are planted, if the weather is dry.

Trimming Formal hedge plants: Dwarf Box is a slow growing plant and we deliver it bushy, so don't clip it at all in its first year. While your young hedge is reaching the desired height, it will need the very smallest amount of formative trimming at the sides, to maintain its bushiness; removing 1cm every other winter is good. Do not trim the top of the hedge until it has reached the planned height.
When it is fully grown, you can clip it at anytime. A good time to clip Dwarf Box hedges is in winter. A simple trick to make your job easier if you are using hand shears is to wet the blade frequently, or spray the hedge with water. You will find it much easier to cut and this will give you more precision.

Depending on how you trim them, you can easily get two very different effects from your Dwarf Box. The formal style is to maintain a square or rectangular shape, which brings a satisfying element of order to your garden. The other option is to let it grow and trim the top very lightly, which will form smooth mounds like green boulders.

Special notes on caring for Dwarf Box hedges:
Dwarf 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.

Hygiene & Diseases:
Dead, damaged or diseased wood can 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.
To reduce the risk of box blight, sweep away dead leaves from underneath the hedges a few times a year.