Boxwood
Buxus sempervirens
The classic evergreen for clipped low to medium hedges, edging and topiary, with dense, glossy leaves all year, and deer leave it alone. It adapts to sun or part shade. Plant it shallow in well-drained soil, mulch the roots and shelter it from winter wind and sun, which bronze it. Boxwood blight is its main threat.
- Mature size
- 3.5 × 3.5 ft
- 1.1 × 1.1 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 5b–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to full shade
- Water
- Dry to moist
Boxwood at its mature size
A mature Boxwood grows 3 to 4 feet tall and just as wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Monrovia.
Through the year
What Boxwood looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Year-round
Dense rounded mound of small glossy medium green leaves.
Photos
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Growing Boxwood
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Hedge, small space, foundation planting, shade garden, drought tolerant, and deer resistant
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Boxwood, that’s about 3.5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Boxwood in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other boxwoods
Boxwood
Baby Gem BoxwoodGreen Beauty Boxwood
Green Mountain BoxwoodAll drawn to the same scale.