Buxus
geum keenbutgreen
Posts: 508
in Plants
I bought a couple of Buxus, to plant in stone planters either side of my front door. As the planters are built into the patio, I thought they would be bottomless ( so direct access to soil under) but it turns out they are stone bottomed with just one drain hole. Knickers Will Buxus live in a wide shallow planter like this? Depth is about six inches, but they are quite large in width. I don't need them to grow very large, as I want to prune them into balls to sit quite low under the windows. Any ideas? Thanks!
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I would say they should survive but may need water during dry times. Will they be in sun or shade as this will dictate the amount of watering needed.
Make sure you use loam-based compost and not multi-purpose.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Buxus have a shallow root system without a taproot..... having said that, I would imagine keeping them watered & fed in six inches of soil would be a pain, especially during the summer.
Time to clip is early June, old gardeners used to recommend Derby Day as a memorable reminder.
Monty Don's box hedging at Longmeadow is a good example of clipping at the wrong time.