© The Dabney Nursery
Plant: American Boxwood
Boxwood · Buxus sempervirens
Size: Cone 5 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
A dense, multi stemmed, rounded evergreen shrub that grows slowly to 5 to 20 feet tall and 5 to 15 feet wide, with glossy leathery elliptical leaves 1 to 3 inches long that are blue gray to green above and yellowish beneath. Small cream coloured apetalous flowers open in spring and are fragrant rather than showy, followed by small brown dehiscent capsules. It takes full sun or partial shade in clay, loam or sand with good drainage around neutral pH, resists deer, drought and rabbits, and is used for hedges, screens, borders, foundation plantings and containers.
- Full Sun
- Grows to 20 ft tall and 15 ft wide
- Blooms in spring
- Hardy in USDA zones 5a-8b
- Evergreen foliage
Plant description
A dense, multi stemmed, rounded evergreen shrub that grows slowly to 5 to 20 feet tall and 5 to 15 feet wide, with glossy leathery elliptical leaves 1 to 3 inches long that are blue gray to green above and yellowish beneath. Small cream coloured apetalous flowers open in spring and are fragrant rather than showy, followed by small brown dehiscent capsules. It takes full sun or partial shade in clay, loam or sand with good drainage around neutral pH, resists deer, drought and rabbits, and is used for hedges, screens, borders, foundation plantings and containers.
- Flowers
- Small apetalous cream to tan flowers in spring, fragrant but not showy.
- Foliage
- Simple opposite elliptical to oblong evergreen leaves 1 to 3 inches long and under an inch wide, glossy, leathery and smooth, blue gray to green above with a yellowish underside.
- Fruit
- A globose dehiscent capsule about one third of an inch across.
- Bark & stems
- New stems green, mature to brown, square in cross section.
- Light
- Morning Sun, Afternoon Sun
- Pruning
- Do not prune too early in spring or late in summer. Thinning plants annually helps light and air circulation.
- Native range
- Europe to N. Iran, N. Africa
