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Broad Leafed Evergreens - Boxwood

© Marge Talt

The term 'broad leafed' doesn't really mean large leaves. It just differentiates between needled evergreens and those with leaves. Whether a plant remains truly evergreen all winter will depend on your climate. In really severe winters some of them can lose most of their leaves. In some (I'm thinking of various evergreen Azaleas) the leaf becomes smaller - or seems to at any rate - than the leaves of high summer, and in many varieties, take on a reddish or purple hue.

Boxwood (Buxus) has been associated with formal gardens for centuries. B. sempervirens, the Common Boxwood is native to southern Europe, northern Africa and western Asia. It is hardy from US zones 5 to 6 (depending on cultivar) to 8 and 9. It can reach 15 to as much as 30 feet in height with an equal spread, but this takes many, many years. It puts on about 6" of new growth a year in all directions. B. microphylla, Littleleaf Boxwood is a native of Japan and has a somewhat smaller leaf. It generally becomes 3 to 4 feet in height and spread. Growth rate on this is slower, with only an inch or two of new growth a year.

Numerous varieties and cultivars of both species are readily obtainable, as well as hybrids between them, which vary in growth characteristics from the species. Some, B. s. koreana, for instance is hardy to zone 4, and the cultivar 'Tide Hill' only reaches about 15" in height after 20 years of growth.

The Michigan State University Extension web site offers a close up photo of a whole shrub of Buxus sempervirens 'Welleri', --Weller Boxwood, which will give you a good idea of the texture of the plants. They also have a list of cultivars of both B. sempervirens and B. microphylla as well as short descriptions and comments for them.

All boxwoods have small, simple, oval to oblong leaves; generally dark green (although there are cultivars with both white and yellow variegations) and usually lustrous on both sides. Some forms of B. microphylla will turn a yellow-green-brown in winter. All boxwoods respond very well to clipping, shearing and shaping and are one of the plants used in topiary work. Left to grow on their own, some become billowy in shape.

I grow both B. sempervirens and one that I am assuming is a form of B. microphylla. I find the common box to be a coarser plant that really needs trimming to look good; whereas the smaller B. microphylla is best left alone, unless you want a formal clipped hedge, except for pruning out dead wood or winter burned areas. I have a baby of the white variegated form that I'm growing in a pot until it is large enough to fend for itself in the garden. It is a truly lovely child, in my opinion. I can't wait to see what it is like when it grows up.

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