You probably dont care but if you are bored like me during the covid times then you can watch pretty much all of the new movies on InstaFlixxer. Have been streaming with my gf during the lockdown =)
I bought 20 boxwood winter green.and eounymus plants. I’m begging to do my ball boxwood garden. I planted them my self yesterday . I’m very proud and happy. I can’t wait to see it
This is a very timely video for me - I am planning to plant some small boxwoods this spring that will eventually form a hedges. Keeping some in ball and cone shapes sounds enchanting! Thank you for another great video - your friend's garden is beautiful :)
Hi Alexandra, I enjoyed your video. We have a lot of boxwoods in square and round shapes, not as many as Diane...I love to trim them as I find that to be very peaceful and therapeutic. I have also made some new ones from trimmings but they take awhile to grow. Thanks so much for this video. Have a great weekend!
What a fantastic garden. I'm also in Kent, lost a 3ft cone 2 years ago to box caterpillar while on holiday. This year i've really been on top of them, every few days doing the rounds and so far, apart from a few early in the year, i've been lucky. Sprayed once this year and only caught one moth in the trap. But i'm now using taxus (yew) for any new planting, more expensive, but bombproof.
Thank you. This has been very inspirational. I headed out to the garden, with clippers in hand and created lovely shapes. And I really loved the results.
Quite helpful. I'm gazing into the garden at my box balls in the snow - lovely! But I do need to undercut a few of them to bring the sphere shape down to the ground. Here in US Zone 5b, I prune in May and again in early September. I find that an electric trimmer makes the job manageable for me.
Diane says she does use an electric trimmer sometimes too - she's says she's still experimenting with the balance between the ideal cutting tool and saving time.
One thing I have noticed is that the plants take longer to recover if they are trimmed with a machine - perhaps because the leaves tend to be torn rather than cut cleanly with the shears. Diane (garden owner)
Wonderful presentation of a fabulous garden and its fascinating creator. For the last two years, I have been training Japanese holly (Ilex crenata) into a low hedge of small spheres flanking a path and one as a cone in a pot near the front entrance. For the last five, I have been shaping ivy around a pergola's pillars. Their growth is now bushy enough on the pergola's roof to be shaped into large balls. Quite interesting effect! I let ivy adhere to various dead trees and bushes, then I trim the shape that I see them forming: a wishbone on a rose bush, a heart on a column of honeysuckle. It saves me the bother of removing dead plant material. It's more fun than anything else, though it does look fine in the garden.
Perhaps my favorite gardening UA-cam channel! You have helped me manifest my English-garden inspired perennial gardens around my home in Indiana, in the Midwest of the US. Thank you so very much. I just moved to a new home and landscape (dating to 1989) with a huge 5 ft tall by 13 foot long healthy boxwood hedge. It is about the only original landscape shrub worth keeping. So I am trying to educate myself on all aspects of boxwood, paying special attention to the health. I have been reluctant to prune or even water it, so your knowledge and tips are fantastic.
Starting my formal garden in the front yard needed some great ideas and I must say this beautiful garden has help me with a great idea thank you I'll be watching.
Thank you again. Fascinating subject. I have been clipping evergreen abelias into spheres for the last several years, in addition to my boxwood ones. The abelias reach a decent size more quickly and resemble boxwood in leaf color and shape, and take sun and drought very well. I also have a sphere of a non flowering honeysuckle variety called "twiggy" that has been a very good box substitute. So many possibilities.
The ball is a hard start to Topiary beginnings .I started with a tall conifer that stopped light into my garden. I tubed it and cut sections into it as far as trunk. Thus leaving four rounds about 10inch deep and it worked well. Since then have had one more sectioned bushes with balls of top which took more skill than sections did .result looks good
I just discovered your videos recently. I'm thrilled to find we garden in very similar zones. I'm in central Alabama, technically an 8a I believe, but we never know what Mother Nature will throw our way here. A little bit about me-I love to travel when I'm not out saving lives (I work full-time as a paramedic) I've traveled all over the world and loved every minute of it. I spent 2 years trying to decide what to do with a very large, square plot of land. I love English cottage style, French countryside, Japanese and Italian features, etc...I woke from a dream exactly one year ago this week. I WOULD DO THEM ALL!!!!!I sketched a plan to incorporate all of them. No, I didn't know the first thing about gardening. But I was determined! Here it is a year later and I have a whole new appreciation for gardening. I would say most of the $8,000 I've spent the past year is probably dead. Not only due to inexperience and heavy clay soil, but the worst weather year in recent history! I'll know what, if anything, survived in a couple of months. I just recently enrolled in a Master Gardening program so that will come in handy as well. With your videos and a little luck I hope to have my "Around The World" garden in a few years. Your videos are wonderful! Keep them coming! :) Rebecca
Thank you - that all sounds like a wonderful project and the Master Gardeners course will be very useful. But weather as you say, is so unpredictable at the moment.
I’ve watched this video several times because it’s just full of great tips and tricks that I’ll use in my own garden. Thank you so much for providing such helpful content! I’d love to see a video about how to incorporate annuals and perennials amidst the box.
I paused it several times just to take in the beauty of the structures; the brick arch, the patio encircled in brick, the pergola with the owl atop...sooooo beautiful. It really makes you consider winter interest when the rest of the garden is dormant.
Really enjoyed this video. It was informative, encouraging and entertaining to have your friend share her tips and techniques. Having successful amateur gardeners share there experience helps me be enthusiastic for my gardening skills development. Thank you for much for your You Tube Channel.
I really enjoyed this video and watched it four times in succession. I am excited to incorporate some simple shapes into my small carriage house gardens. Thank you!
For those who live in UK, the garden will be open in aid of charity under the National Garden Scheme on 21 June 2020. I hope to welcome some of you on that occasion. Diane (garden owner).
Fabulous thanks Alexandra. Would you consider doing a few instructional videos on topiary for beginners. We'd like to see a couple of simple shapes being clipped. 💚👍
Thank you so much for this particular video Alexandra. I have a boxwood hedge that I planted as very small shrubs 30 years ago. I’ve maintained them in strikingly precise straight hedges that run up both sides of my front walkway and ends in a twinned curve at the foot of my front door steps. Passers-by reach over just to touch it and marvel, not believing it’s real. All these years I’ve had no problems with it, our irrigation system waters from above, I’ve trimmed in the heat of July etc. I do mulch it and fertilize occasionally with evergreen spikes. Over the last two years I’ve put a tarp down to catch the clippings so I’m not raking them out of the lawn. This year however I’ve got patches of mouldy brown leaves! I’ve sprayed with an insecticidal spray several times where I did see large funnel spiders scurry out and a large moth as well. I am worried it’s one of the two blights you mentioned, either boxwood blight or box caterpillar moth or is it just old age? Next year I will stop using the irrigation system and water from below and I will only trim in the cooler weather but for now, is there anything that you can suggest? Im in the Niagara region of Ontario, Canada which is a growing zone 6b. Any input would be immensely appreciated.
The patches of mouldy brown leaves do sound like box blight, but it's difficult to tell from a description and I'm not an expert on it. Is there a gardening club or good shrub nursery near you you can ask (take them a photo not a cutting!)? There are some chemicals you can use, but I think that if they worked, then the problem wouldn't still be spreading all over the world. I don't think ordinary insecticidal sprays work, so don't use them unless you know you need them. Watering from below is definitely good, and otherwise I think crossing your fingers and hoping for the best is almost the only thing you can do. Sorry if that isn't very helpful, they do sound beautiful. But it may be just a temporary problem and they'll come back.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden thank you very much. I just went out and bought some bone meal to set them up for winter. I have a call in to some landscapers but as yet no call back. As you say, fingers crossed and I look forward to your weekly UA-cam programs. So insightful.
This was very informative. I would like to include more structure like boxwood hedges and balls to my garden. I have had very bad luck with boxwood but your suggestions of other plants makes me think outside of the "box."
Thank you! I think if you've had trouble with boxwood, then you need to avoid it because the problems do hang around. So I hope some of the alternatives work well. Well shaped conifers might also do the same job.
Thank you for the compliment. The brown hedge is indeed beech; the golden shrub is Choisya Ternata “Sundance” - brings wonderful light into the border at any time of the year (especially winter) and has scented white flowers. Diane (garden owner)
For long handled Japaneses sword makers art I researched Holland man who is on internet sales making Topiary sheers so sharp out of sword forged hammered metal . Now for the surprise cost is not in thousands but mine made for me cost just 80 euro . Last life time light and easy to use, love them .Sharpen up sharp as ever. Without these Topiary is not the same
Hello, this was such a great video! Thank you. Would you know what Diane suggests how many plants to use when she said to plant several close together to get a bigger sphere?
Hi Alexandra I very much appreciate your reply. Thank you. Dianes Garden is my dream space. I shouldn’t even think about how long it mich have taken her to creat such a space
No, topiaries are usually tightly clipped so they don't usually have flowers, but there are lots of other flowers in the garden, so the bees won't miss out. Also evergreen foliage provides shelter for wildlife all year round so it does have a part to play, just not feeding bees.
I live in NSW Australia and found this video very good as I'm wanting to learn topiary in my garden, now my question is can you do this on Murraya as I have lots?
I don't know Murraya but you could ask The Horti-Culturalists UA-cam channel as they are Australia based and v knowledgeable. Otherwise give it a try and see what happens!
One thing I haven’t been able to figure out is how to prune from a young plant into a larger, shaped box. Most videos show pruning once the plant is quite established. The same goes for hedge. In order to have it grow faster, I know some pruning is necessary, but it is hard to conceptualize from start to finish. I should mention I am in the United States and our tradition of topiary for the average gardener is lacking in cultural knowledge. Thank you!
I haven't seen box plants with larger leaves, so I don't know, I'm sorry. I think the best thing would be to try it out, because if you don't like it, the leaves will re-grow.
Don't throw out your rusty blades. Buy cleaning vinegar, ( this is stronger than culinary vinegar ) pour into a large enough container to completely submerge the rusted item and allow to soak. The rustier, the longer. Scrub with steel wool, rinse, dry, oil and wipe, leaving a thin film of oil residue.
Diane cuts the topiary free hand because a cage restricts the size. She's been practising for many years and she's also got a very good eye. I am less handy, but I've found that it's not too difficult to cut mine into rounds.
Alexandra, I have one more question. Would you suggest to just stick with one variety? I have bought green mountains to get the cone shape started and green velvets for the ball shape. My green velvets turned bronze in winter (Michigan). What variety does Diane like to use the most?
Ideally I like to use the same variety of common box (Buxus Sempervirens) but many garden centres don’t identify the cultivar. I therefore try always to buy from the same place. Many of the ones you see in my garden were purchased as much smaller plants in Belgium. Diane (garden owner).
Diane and Robbie fertilise once a year, which is about right for shrubs. The other option is to mulch by covering the soil around them with well rotted farmyard manure or homemade compost once a year. This benefits the soil and is always a good thing to do.
Alexandra, your friend's garden is gorgeous. Thank you for another great video.😊
Thank you!
Beautiful examples. I have been thinking I need to add some formality to my garden with hedges just to ground my perennials.
More topiary, please!!
Thank you!
The garden is strikingly beautiful! I really like the shapes. It would be fun to watch her create a “wacky “ form from start to finish!
Diane's topiary is gorgeous! I, too, would love to see her in action. May we ask for a masterclass in topiary creation, please?
I'll ask her to invite us along when she next cuts her boxwood. Thank you.
The Middle-Sized Garden that would be so AWESOME!!!!!😃
STUNNING!...You described Diane's garden to the point!.
I hope that you can go back in summer to check out Diane's garden.
Tqtq for sharing...💖💝
Thank you!
You probably dont care but if you are bored like me during the covid times then you can watch pretty much all of the new movies on InstaFlixxer. Have been streaming with my gf during the lockdown =)
@Giovanni Elliot definitely, have been watching on InstaFlixxer for years myself :)
Love the way those balls sit against the copper hedge leaves, what a fabulous garden.
Thank you!
How beautiful! Thank you. I am trying
I bought 20 boxwood winter green.and eounymus plants. I’m begging to do my ball boxwood garden. I planted them my self yesterday . I’m very proud and happy. I can’t wait to see it
You'll have a wonderful evergreen garden, I think.
This is a very timely video for me - I am planning to plant some small boxwoods this spring that will eventually form a hedges. Keeping some in ball and cone shapes sounds enchanting! Thank you for another great video - your friend's garden is beautiful :)
Thank you!
Hi Alexandra, I enjoyed your video. We have a lot of boxwoods in square and round shapes, not as many as Diane...I love to trim them as I find that to be very peaceful and therapeutic. I have also made some new ones from trimmings but they take awhile to grow. Thanks so much for this video. Have a great weekend!
Thank you - how interesting you have grown new plants from trimmings.
What a beautiful house and garden.
Thank you!
What a fantastic garden. I'm also in Kent, lost a 3ft cone 2 years ago to box caterpillar while on holiday. This year i've really been on top of them, every few days doing the rounds and so far, apart from a few early in the year, i've been lucky. Sprayed once this year and only caught one moth in the trap. But i'm now using taxus (yew) for any new planting, more expensive, but bombproof.
I bought today 2 cones. Came back to this fabulous video to remind myself on how Diane planted hers
Good to hear!
This dovetails so nicely with your recent low maintenance front garden video. This is definitely the way I need/want to go. Thank you!
Thank you!
Loved this video! So much great info.
Thank you!
Thank you. This has been very inspirational. I headed out to the garden, with clippers in hand and created lovely shapes. And I really loved the results.
That's great to hear.
Quite helpful. I'm gazing into the garden at my box balls in the snow - lovely! But I do need to undercut a few of them to bring the sphere shape down to the ground. Here in US Zone 5b, I prune in May and again in early September. I find that an electric trimmer makes the job manageable for me.
Diane says she does use an electric trimmer sometimes too - she's says she's still experimenting with the balance between the ideal cutting tool and saving time.
One thing I have noticed is that the plants take longer to recover if they are trimmed with a machine - perhaps because the leaves tend to be torn rather than cut cleanly with the shears. Diane (garden owner)
Wonderful presentation of a fabulous garden and its fascinating creator.
For the last two years, I have been training Japanese holly (Ilex crenata) into a low hedge of small spheres flanking a path and one as a cone in a pot near the front entrance. For the last five, I have been shaping ivy around a pergola's pillars. Their growth is now bushy enough on the pergola's roof to be shaped into large balls. Quite interesting effect! I let ivy adhere to various dead trees and bushes, then I trim the shape that I see them forming: a wishbone on a rose bush, a heart on a column of honeysuckle. It saves me the bother of removing dead plant material. It's more fun than anything else, though it does look fine in the garden.
That sounds wonderful.
I’d love to see this! 😍
Perhaps my favorite gardening UA-cam channel! You have helped me manifest my English-garden inspired perennial gardens around my home in Indiana, in the Midwest of the US. Thank you so very much. I just moved to a new home and landscape (dating to 1989) with a huge 5 ft tall by 13 foot long healthy boxwood hedge. It is about the only original landscape shrub worth keeping. So I am trying to educate myself on all aspects of boxwood, paying special attention to the health. I have been reluctant to prune or even water it, so your knowledge and tips are fantastic.
Thank you!
Love Diane’s garden!
Beautiful gardens. All framed perfectly with boxwoods. Diane is talented. Love the formality.💚
Thank you.
I am working on my boxwood game in America - thanks!
Beautiful, serene garden, thank you both for sharing.
Thank you! And this garden also features in the latest video, too, in case you haven't seen it: ua-cam.com/video/U11GMl5IkGI/v-deo.html
Starting my formal garden in the front yard needed some great ideas and I must say this beautiful garden has help me with a great idea thank you I'll be watching.
Beautiful winter garden.
Your discussion here is really very helpful especially for a novice like myself.
Thank you again. Fascinating subject.
I have been clipping evergreen abelias into spheres for the last several years, in addition to my boxwood ones. The abelias reach a decent size more quickly and resemble boxwood in leaf color and shape, and take sun and drought very well. I also have a sphere of a non flowering honeysuckle variety called "twiggy" that has been a very good box substitute. So many possibilities.
Interesting, thank you.
I am in North Carolina (US), but I think I lived in England in another life! I stumbled across your channel today and am delighted!
Thank you!
I loved this. Diane is a gem just like yourself... 2 treasures
Thank you!
I loved the bit of being caught by the neighbors with a Hoover in the garden XD This video was so much fun and very informative, thank you!
Thank you so much!
Beautiful garden! Your friend has a sharp eye for form, structure and texture. Thanks for sharing Ms. Alexandra
Thank you!
Wow... looking for round boxwood tips and really lucked out! Thanks. Love the landscaping the owner has done.
Thank you and Godbless you more for invaluable tips that value added practical tips .
The ball is a hard start to Topiary beginnings .I started with a tall conifer that stopped light into my garden. I tubed it and cut sections into it as far as trunk. Thus leaving four rounds about 10inch deep and it worked well. Since then have had one more sectioned bushes with balls of top which took more skill than sections did .result looks good
That's an attractive topiary shape, sounds very good.
Very interesting video. I've added a few boxwoods here and there as part of my plan to create more winter interest.
Thank you!
I just discovered your videos recently. I'm thrilled to find we garden in very similar zones. I'm in central Alabama, technically an 8a I believe, but we never know what Mother Nature will throw our way here. A little bit about me-I love to travel when I'm not out saving lives (I work full-time as a paramedic) I've traveled all over the world and loved every minute of it. I spent 2 years trying to decide what to do with a very large, square plot of land. I love English cottage style, French countryside, Japanese and Italian features, etc...I woke from a dream exactly one year ago this week. I WOULD DO THEM ALL!!!!!I sketched a plan to incorporate all of them. No, I didn't know the first thing about gardening. But I was determined! Here it is a year later and I have a whole new appreciation for gardening. I would say most of the $8,000 I've spent the past year is probably dead. Not only due to inexperience and heavy clay soil, but the worst weather year in recent history! I'll know what, if anything, survived in a couple of months. I just recently enrolled in a Master Gardening program so that will come in handy as well. With your videos and a little luck I hope to have my "Around The World" garden in a few years. Your videos are wonderful! Keep them coming! :) Rebecca
Thank you - that all sounds like a wonderful project and the Master Gardeners course will be very useful. But weather as you say, is so unpredictable at the moment.
Lovely, lovely garden!
Thank you!
I’ve watched this video several times because it’s just full of great tips and tricks that I’ll use in my own garden. Thank you so much for providing such helpful content! I’d love to see a video about how to incorporate annuals and perennials amidst the box.
I will definitely bear that in mind - I often wonder about that too. thank you.
I paused it several times just to take in the beauty of the structures; the brick arch, the patio encircled in brick, the pergola with the owl atop...sooooo beautiful. It really makes you consider winter interest when the rest of the garden is dormant.
Really enjoyed this video. It was informative, encouraging and entertaining to have your friend share her tips and techniques. Having successful amateur gardeners share there experience helps me be enthusiastic for my gardening skills development. Thank you for much for your You Tube Channel.
Thank you so much!
Great video. Very helpful and informative.
I really enjoyed this video and watched it four times in succession. I am excited to incorporate some simple shapes into my small carriage house gardens. Thank you!
Great video, Alexandra. Your friend's garden is spectacular. Bravo to her. Keep these videos coming. Thanks so much, once again.
Thank you!
Great video! I learned so much and I’m ready to add to my garden.
Thank you!
What fun. I will work toward a sphere in a pot this year.
Love, love , love!
Beautiful! Would also love to see her garden in bloom!
I'll try to make a return visit later in the year. Thank you.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Yes, please Alexandra. It's already so breathtakingly beautiful in the winter. I'd love to see it in full bloom
For those who live in UK, the garden will be open in aid of charity under the National Garden Scheme on 21 June 2020. I hope to welcome some of you on that occasion. Diane (garden owner).
Fabulous thanks Alexandra. Would you consider doing a few instructional videos on topiary for beginners. We'd like to see a couple of simple shapes being clipped. 💚👍
Great idea!
Thank you so much for this particular video Alexandra. I have a boxwood hedge that I planted as very small shrubs 30 years ago. I’ve maintained them in strikingly precise straight hedges that run up both sides of my front walkway and ends in a twinned curve at the foot of my front door steps. Passers-by reach over just to touch it and marvel, not believing it’s real. All these years I’ve had no problems with it, our irrigation system waters from above, I’ve trimmed in the heat of July etc. I do mulch it and fertilize occasionally with evergreen spikes. Over the last two years I’ve put a tarp down to catch the clippings so I’m not raking them out of the lawn. This year however I’ve got patches of mouldy brown leaves! I’ve sprayed with an insecticidal spray several times where I did see large funnel spiders scurry out and a large moth as well. I am worried it’s one of the two blights you mentioned, either boxwood blight or box caterpillar moth or is it just old age? Next year I will stop using the irrigation system and water from below and I will only trim in the cooler weather but for now, is there anything that you can suggest? Im in the Niagara region of Ontario, Canada which is a growing zone 6b. Any input would be immensely appreciated.
The patches of mouldy brown leaves do sound like box blight, but it's difficult to tell from a description and I'm not an expert on it. Is there a gardening club or good shrub nursery near you you can ask (take them a photo not a cutting!)? There are some chemicals you can use, but I think that if they worked, then the problem wouldn't still be spreading all over the world. I don't think ordinary insecticidal sprays work, so don't use them unless you know you need them. Watering from below is definitely good, and otherwise I think crossing your fingers and hoping for the best is almost the only thing you can do. Sorry if that isn't very helpful, they do sound beautiful. But it may be just a temporary problem and they'll come back.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden thank you very much. I just went out and bought some bone meal to set them up for winter. I have a call in to some landscapers but as yet no call back. As you say, fingers crossed and I look forward to your weekly UA-cam programs. So insightful.
Wonderful information! Thank you.
This is such an informative video with excellent tips on caring for, and clipping your box. Thank you both so much!
Glad it was helpful!
This has been a most helpful article ~ thank you for posting it.
Lovely 🥰
This was very informative. I would like to include more structure like boxwood hedges and balls to my garden. I have had very bad luck with boxwood but your suggestions of other plants makes me think outside of the "box."
Thank you! I think if you've had trouble with boxwood, then you need to avoid it because the problems do hang around. So I hope some of the alternatives work well. Well shaped conifers might also do the same job.
Love it!!!!
Beautiful and nice garden design hjr
Love this ❤
You make great content. Thank you
Thank you!
I really enjoyed your video. I would love to try my hand at box ball here in deep south Texas, USA. :)
Thank you from Portugal...
Wonderful!!!!
Great vid!!!!
If you could please tell me where you got the windmill at the end that looks like a tree. I LOVE IT!
So helpful and what aboutseverewinterdamage. We had high winds and 10 below zero
Can you do a video on monochromatic gardens?
Interesting! I will look for one, but there are not too many about. But it's a growing trend, I believe.
She has a lovely garden. Was the brown hedge beech? Are the yellow privet? Thanks for sharing this beautiful garden.
Thank you for the compliment. The brown hedge is indeed beech; the golden shrub is Choisya Ternata “Sundance” - brings wonderful light into the border at any time of the year (especially winter) and has scented white flowers. Diane (garden owner)
Love it thank you.
thank you
Awesome
Great video 👍 thank you for sharing
Thanks for watching
Very helpful!!
Very helpful... thank you!
For long handled Japaneses sword makers art I researched Holland man who is on internet sales making Topiary sheers so sharp out of sword forged hammered metal . Now for the surprise cost is not in thousands but mine made for me cost just 80 euro . Last life time light and easy to use, love them .Sharpen up sharp as ever. Without these Topiary is not the same
Absolutely.
Hello, this was such a great video! Thank you. Would you know what Diane suggests how many plants to use when she said to plant several close together to get a bigger sphere?
Thank you. Diane used about four small young plants and planted them close together. Friends have also done this to create a square-shaped boxwood
Hi Alexandra I very much appreciate your reply. Thank you. Dianes Garden is my dream space. I shouldn’t even think about how long it mich have taken her to creat such a space
Thank you so much!
Very shapely topiary garden. Great advice. Do any of those topiaries flower and feed the bees?
No, topiaries are usually tightly clipped so they don't usually have flowers, but there are lots of other flowers in the garden, so the bees won't miss out. Also evergreen foliage provides shelter for wildlife all year round so it does have a part to play, just not feeding bees.
I live in NSW Australia and found this video very good as I'm wanting to learn topiary in my garden, now my question is can you do this on Murraya as I have lots?
I don't know Murraya but you could ask The Horti-Culturalists UA-cam channel as they are Australia based and v knowledgeable. Otherwise give it a try and see what happens!
I spoke to my local garden centre and they said you can but they showed me which bushes was best which is box so I bought a few 🥰🥰
Bought cone buxus but the leaves are drying despite me watering them. What am i doing wrong?🤔
One thing I haven’t been able to figure out is how to prune from a young plant into a larger, shaped box. Most videos show pruning once the plant is quite established. The same goes for hedge. In order to have it grow faster, I know some pruning is necessary, but it is hard to conceptualize from start to finish. I should mention I am in the United States and our tradition of topiary for the average gardener is lacking in cultural knowledge. Thank you!
Thank you!
I have a young box plant in the garden with a larger leaf. Do you think it would clip to a shape successfully. Thank you
I haven't seen box plants with larger leaves, so I don't know, I'm sorry. I think the best thing would be to try it out, because if you don't like it, the leaves will re-grow.
Don't throw out your rusty blades.
Buy cleaning vinegar, ( this is stronger than culinary vinegar ) pour into a large enough container to completely submerge the rusted item and allow to soak. The rustier, the longer.
Scrub with steel wool, rinse, dry, oil and wipe, leaving a thin film of oil residue.
I wanted to see how they are cut, do you use a cage?
Diane cuts the topiary free hand because a cage restricts the size. She's been practising for many years and she's also got a very good eye. I am less handy, but I've found that it's not too difficult to cut mine into rounds.
Cool
Alexandra, I have one more question. Would you suggest to just stick with one variety? I have bought green mountains to get the cone shape started and green velvets for the ball shape.
My green velvets turned bronze in winter (Michigan). What variety does Diane like to use the most?
Ideally I like to use the same variety of common box (Buxus Sempervirens) but many garden centres don’t identify the cultivar. I therefore try always to buy from the same place. Many of the ones you see in my garden were purchased as much smaller plants in Belgium. Diane (garden owner).
Diane Perry thank you Diane
My pleasure - it's a shame that the varietal names are not the same in UK and USA!
I agree with Diane - if you can get the same variety, that's great.
How often would you fertilise them ?
Diane and Robbie fertilise once a year, which is about right for shrubs. The other option is to mulch by covering the soil around them with well rotted farmyard manure or homemade compost once a year. This benefits the soil and is always a good thing to do.
Never trim Box until 10 days after Derby Day .
You missed the elephant in the room ; privet !
Ha, ha! I do like privet but it does grow very quickly so as topiary you have to keep trimming it.
Very helpful. Thank You