Boxwood Questions and Answers

By Bess Taylor

 

Dear Garden Guru:

 

We have some rather large (8-10' high) American boxwoods that are all growing very close together.  Several of them grow right underneath a couple of spreading trees, so these are definitely living in a partial-shade area.  I'm interested in transplanting 2 of the bushes to a different area - which is much more shady.  My questions:

 

1) Can American boxwoods tolerate partial- to mostly-shady areas?  and assuming they can:

2) How difficult/damaging is it to remove a couple of the plants while leaving the others intact?  I understand that their roots don't grow that deep, but I'm worried that the roots will have so commingled with their neighbors that I just may be killing both them and their neighbors if I try to move them.

3) Is this something I can hire a team of people to do (i.e., dig up around the roots etc), or is it really a job for a specialist?

4) Is there anything special I should know about transplanting them? and

5) Finally, what's the best time of year to do this?  I'd understood the end of September / beginning of October, but I'd love some more input.

 

Thanks!

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Wondering in Western Marshall

 

 

Dear Wondering,

 

The American Boxwood is known by the Latin name Buxus sempervirens, which it shares with the English Boxwood. It can grow anywhere from a couple of feet tall (dwarf varieties) to upwards of 20 feet and beyond. Legend has it that a born-Virginian is able to smell the English Boxwood more keenly than non-Virginians and according to my Virginia-born husband, the odor is rather akin to ammonia. Still, you’ll find this very attractive evergreen shrub in Virginia’s most stately landscapes, edging walkways and knot-gardens where I imagine fine Virginia-born ladies having to flutter their fans daintily as they pass.

 

Boxwood is sturdy, long-lived and easy-going, but flourishes best in sun or light shade and well-drained soil. In other words, they can take some shade, but won’t grow as well as they would in more generous sunlight. Their roots are very close to the surface, but in my opinion if your Boxwoods are 8-10 feet high and very close together, those roots are most likely too intermingled to move safely without threatening both the transplant and the neighbor.

 

If you really must transplant them, I’d try a root pruning now to prepare the roots for moving later. Take a sharp spade and cut a circle into the ground around the drip-line of the shrub. (Imagine a spotlight directly over the shrub- the outline of the shadow would be the drip-line.) This will trim the roots at that point, both from the shrubs to be moved as well as those that will stay and give each time to recover and develop smaller feeder roots closer to their trunks. In early spring, after the ground thaws, prepare a nice hole at the new site (sunnier is better), bigger than the root-pruned circumference for each shrub. Take the native dirt from the hole and mix it with organic material, such as well-aged manure or compost. Then dig up the boxwoods you wish to move, cutting in just outside the root-pruned line and lift. Set them in the prepared holes, backfill with the native dirt and organic mix and water well.

 

If you need to thin them out, you may try selecting one or two less dominant specimens and carefully sawing them down. A less drastic measure might be to simply prune them. Although Boxwoods are well known for being sheared into amusing topiary shapes, the more healthy way pruning method is to selectively take whole branches out all the way down to the trunk, leaving the branch collar bump so the wound can heal. This opens the inner branches to more sunlight and therefore more nutrients. Spring is considered a good time to prune boxwoods, since the pruning stimulates delicate new growth that can be harmed by harsh weather.

 

You may want to get a professional to transplant or prune your Boxwoods (particularly if you’re a native Virginian!), but I once had a pair of five-footers that I pruned one very mild December. Not only did they look much better, fluffier and less condensed than before pruning, I had enough cut branches to create a spectacular Yuletide garland for the ironwork around my mother’s front stairway. She is from New England, couldn’t smell it at all and was thrilled! Sadly, we later transplanted these same shrubs and though their shallow roots made them easy to move, we made the mistake of putting them in a soggy area where they moped miserably for a year before nobly fading away. Had we left them where they were, they might still be gracing our yard today.