When To Trim Boxwoods

Boxwoods are popular as foundation plants, but they also look great as stand-alone shrubs. Learn how and when to trim boxwoods to maintain their shape. Boxwoods are a popular foundation plant because they grow quite wide and look great as stand-alone shrubs. One thing that the popular shrub needs is regular trimming. Here’s when to trim boxwoods so they maintain their shape. Anytime Boxwood branches grow too long and you need to get rid of excess foliage, you can prune the boxwood to shape. Make your cuts as close to the branch union as possible. That way, the boxwood has a better chance at recovering fully from its trimming and maintaining its growing habit and shape.

In the spring Boxwoods can grow a bit dormant in the spring when cool weather arrives. If you prune them when they are relatively dormant, your boxwood will recover more quickly. You can also cut boxwoods back in late winter before they begin to grow again if you want to prevent them from growing out of bounds. Late Winter Experts recommend cutting back boxwoods late in the winter months before they begin to grow for two reasons.

Can boxwood be trimmed anytime?

Yes, boxwoods can be trimmed anytime and they will grow back with more vigor. The best time to trim and prune boxwoods is Spring before new growth begins. Experts recommend trimming them in late winter before they begin to grow for two reasons. First, humans tend to want a more formal shape than a boxwood, especially in the spring when many people start pulling their plants out of the ground and into containers for the summer. There’s simply more leeway in the early spring before flower stalks and the branches start to grow. The second reason is that boxwood roots need time to develop after being trimmed, and if you wait too long, there’s a good chance the boxwood will lose its shape.

How To Trim Boxwoods?

1. Boxwoods can be trimmed anytime, but Experts recommend trimming them in late winter before they begin to grow for two reasons. First, humans tend to want a more formal shape than a boxwood, especially in the spring when many people start pulling their plants out of the ground and into containers for the summer. There’s simply more leeway in the early spring before flower stalks and the branches start to grow. The second reason is that boxwood roots need time to develop after being trimmed, and if you wait too long, there’s a good chance the boxwood will lose its shape.
2. It’s important to cut at least an inch above a side branch or lateral node if you want the overall shape of the shrub to hold. If you make your cut closer to the node, it will be harder for the plant to establish itself when it begins growing again.
3. When you’re trimming boxwoods, keep the end result in mind. Boxwoods are grown for their overall shape as much as they are grown for individual plants. If you trim off too much foliage, there won’t be enough to hold the shape of the shrub. Keep enough foliage on the plant so that it can fully recover from the pruning and still have enough leaves on it to create an overall boxwood shape.
4. If you want to create a formal shape with boxwoods, consider making a hedge. You can cut them into a rectangular shape and keep that shape year after year. This is also an option if you have several boxwoods close together, but you’re looking for a more formal look than the natural look that they create by themselves.
5. Even after you trim your boxwood back, it will still grow.

What can I do with leggy boxwoods?

1. Leggy boxwoods are still desirable because they are attractive when grown as a hedge or in an informal hedge.
2. If you have a particularly leggy boxwood, try to encourage it to grow in a different direction – say if you’re near an arbor or other trellis structure, you can install and wire up trellis poles and even create stands of vertical wire that will create another view from the plant, making it more visually interesting from all sides.
3. With boxwood, you have the option to trim the shrubs back to about a foot and a half or so in diameter and then watch them re-grow to their original size.
4. Another thing you can do with really leggy boxwoods is literally “stack” them. By that, I mean that if you have two very thin (leggy) boxwoods near each other, try to stack them like you would bamboo by creating an X out of two thin trunks.

Important Tips

1. Boxwoods are extremely fragile once they are cut, so be sure that you finish your pruning one day before you go to bed. If you trim your boxwood after dark, say around 8 or so at night, make sure that you have a good light source and a plan for protecting the plant for the first day after you cut it back.
2. Boxwood is susceptible to fungal diseases, so you want to cut off any dead branches and trim it back to a healthy-looking, new growth.
3. If you cut boxwood back to bare wood, then there’s a good chance that the plant will die. It’s best to always leave at least a few branches on the end of boxwoods so the plant has a chance at growing back from that cut.
4. When you’re pruning boxwood, it’s best to leave 3 buds on each side that were on the plant when you cut it back. Experts recommend leaving at least one bud per foot from the ground up. So if you are cutting to the top of a 4 foot shrub, then at least leave 2 buds and one bud per foot down from the top of the shrub until the pruning is complete.
5. Keep your boxwood pruning in mind when you are selecting your plants. Most boxwood selections are more formal-looking than the original boxwoods in the wild, so if you go to a garden center and find a nice selection of boxwoods that look great with different flower arrangements on the table, the odds are good that those will be more formal-looking than their wild cousins. If you like their natural look, then buy a selection that has only grown naturally in the wild and is not enhanced with any fancy shapes or styles.