English Box is Melbourne’s most popular low hedge or border. English Box has dense dark green foliage. When trimmed into a hedge or topiary they have a clearly defined shape. English Box hedges and topiary create a truly traditional formal style garden. The advantage of English Box hedge and border is that it only requires one or two trimmings per year. It needs very little water and it grows in almost any soil except for very heavy or poorly drained soil.
English Box grows in full sun through to the very deepest shade. In fact, English Box will grow with no direct sunlight. English Box is the best of the low borders when you have a border that is partly in full sun and partly in deep shade.
For perfect English Box borders and hedges, we recommend a spacing of 5 plants per metre. The secret to making perfect English Box borders and hedges is to space your English Box closely.
Often people plant their English Box too far apart and they take forever to fill in. English Box tend to shoot upward instead of outward when they are younger. If English Box is spaced too far apart there will be upside down ‘U’ shaped gaps at the bottom of the hedge. One old English gardening book said to plant English Box 1 inch apart. At Hello Hello Plants & Garden Supplies we have found over the years that planting English Box at the rate of 5 per metre will create a dense bushy border in just a few years without making it unnecessarily expensive to establish a border.
The advantage of planting this close is although it can take a year or two for your English Box border to fully form you get a nice green tiny border immediately by planting 5 plants per metre. We mass-produce English Box and sell it at the cheapest price in Melbourne to make a proper English Box hedge affordable.
In two years a 3” pot size will form a 12”-16” tall English Box Border. To get the best growth from your English Box test your pH and if it is below 6.5 use plenty of ground agricultural limestone. This is particularly important if English Box is planted in a commercial potting mix. Then top dress regularly with a dynamic lifter or slow-release fertiliser. Water well in summer and keep the base of your hedge free of grass and weeds.
English box is available in Standards and Topiaries such as box balls, cones, and spirals. Another great variety is the variegated English box which has small dark green foliage with a creamy-white edging that adds a twist to the otherwise ordinary English Box.
