Sweet Box Hedge Plants

Growing Sweet Box:
It will grow well in any well drained soil. It is very shade-tolerant and suitable for the coast.

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 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 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. 

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. Sweet box suckers from the roots, so allow room for that when you cut holes in the fabric: it won't sucker much in the first year or two, so you could go back later to expand the holes if that's convenient. 
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 you have planted your 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, Sweet 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: This 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 winter is good, or even every other winter if it's in deep shade. Do not trim the top of the hedge until it has reached the planned height.
When it is fully grown, you can clip it every year as soon as it finishes flowering. 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.

Special notes:
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 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.