Box
Also called Boxwood, Common box.
| Light | part shade |
|---|---|
| Water | Every 7 days in the growing season, every 30 in winter |
| Pets | Cats toxic, dogs toxic |
Source: ASPCA Animal Poison Control, toxic and non-toxic plants, Boxwood entry.
Toxic to cats and dogs if chewed. Toxic to cats, dogs and horses. The principle is alkaloids, causing vomiting and diarrhoea in cats and dogs and colic in horses. Keep it where an animal that eats houseplants cannot reach it, and speak to a vet if one does. In South Africa telephone the Poison Information Helpline on 0861 555 777; in the US, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center on (888) 426-4435.
Box is the plant that makes a garden look designed, and it is slow enough that a good hedge is inherited rather than planted. The planting window is long because it is planted while dormant: trees and shrubs go in best between October and April in the north, and bare root hedging is only sold from about November to March. In South Africa evergreens are moved in the winter months, with July the traditional time. Set the plants at the spacing you want the finished hedge to be, water them in, and then leave them alone. Clip once in early summer and again lightly in late summer, always in dry weather. Two troubles matter, blight and the box tree caterpillar, and both are found early by anyone who walks the hedge once a week.
Ailments observed
| Brown soft patches on the leaves | Box blight, which spreads in warm wet weather and in still air. Cut out the affected growth, clear the fallen leaves from underneath, and clip in dry weather with tools you have disinfected between plants. |
|---|---|
| Holes chewed in the leaves | Box tree caterpillar, which webs the shoots together as it feeds. Pull the webbing apart and remove the caterpillars by hand where the hedge is small. Check weekly through the summer, because a colony strips a plant in days. |
Filed underPlants that forgive a beginner
Neighbouring entries
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Plumbago auriculataCape plumbago for a long-flowering, drought-tolerant screen: why it is cut back hard at the end of winter, and a genuine skin-contact caution.
Cherry laurel
Prunus laurocerasusCherry laurel for a broad-leaved evergreen screen: why it dislikes heavy feeding, when the shot-hole disease appears, and the truth about its leaves.
Croton
Codiaeum variegatumCroton care that keeps the colour, with the light it needs, why it drops every leaf after a move, and how to root a cutting from a bare stem.