Box balls pyramids and lollipops

Can Yew possibly replace your Dwarf Box hedging which has been destroyed by blight

Well lets talk about that a little later on. In the meantime, although we lost our Box hedging to the dreaded blight a few years ago, we still have the Box Balls, Pyramids and also Lollipops some with three balls some with two and a few which only have one.

The picture above is a border in the back garden with three of these Box Pyramids or Cones. The two outer ones are the common Buxus Sempervirens and the one in the centre, with a little closer inspection is a little more unusual with the edges of the leaves a distinct silvery white colour. Buxus Sempervirens Elegans.

Next, in the border to the right of the garden path we have three Lollipops and also three regular Box balls. The hedging used to run up this path at both sides before it became completely destroyed, The Topiary s were not affected.

There is another Box Ball at the right hand side which is out of view. I know they are not perfectly shaped but I am working on it.

Finally sitting at the doors of our patio are these two large Topiary’s and as I said one has three and the one with two had its lower one removed a couple of years ago, a problem which was caused by water retention. I removed the plant from the pot, improved the drainage and all is now well.

Now, where were we, yes the Box Blight. Unfortunately ours was beyond saving so out it came and we replaced it with Yew Hedging Taxus Baccata English Yew. I wasn’t just too sure about it however the feeling was that of a calculated risk.

Below is pictures of how the Yew hedge is looking three years after planting.

I am keeping the hedge at a height of about twelve inches, trimming it in June then again in September. I feel it is starting to look quite good, tightening up and looking like a dwarf hedge. If you are interested here is a link to the mail order company where I purchased our Yew Hedging Scotplants

How is it going to turn out in the long run. Well, I am all googled out, there doesn’t exactly seem to be evidence of Yew being used for a hedge quite as short, unless you know better. In spite of this I am quietly confident, Yew is extremely hardy and can withstand severe cutting back and has an amazing ability to recover from severe trauma. The one thing which Yew does not like, is soil which is not free draining. I found this out when a specimen which we had in a pot started to die back, turning brown, when I say turning brown it actually looked dead. However I removed it from its sodden pot which clearly did not have adequate drainage, I planted it in the back garden with little hope of recovery and within six months was looking very much better, it is now a very fine Yew Tree.

If you want to see a little of the demise of our box hedging here is a link to a post where I talked of it. The date of November 2010 isn’t quite accurate as I had transferred some of my posts from another website which I had been messing about with before deciding that wordpress in my opinion was the best. Box blight destruction

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September finally brought more settled weather to the North East of Scotland after a Summer of cool temperatures and rain, rain, rain. Below is some of the plants in bloom this month, some of them like Phlox Franz Schubert waited until mid September before coming into flower. Dragging your cursor over the pictures brings up the plant name.