Boxwood shapes »Nice ideas for great figures

The most beautiful shapes for the book

Basically, box is suitable for every imaginable shape, as long as you don't cut into the bare, brown wood. Simply remove the light green, new shoots and do not cut too deep - otherwise, unsightly holes could arise that are difficult to close again. The following forms are particularly popular for the Boxwood:

• Bullet: classic boxwood shape, best to use a template
• pyramid: fits well in formal gardens, also for Japanese garden style
• Cubes, cubes and other rectangular shapes: for formal gardens, also pretty as a small tree with a trunk
• spiral: challenging, exciting form
• Cones: nice as small or large cones
• Column: instead of columns made of wood or stone
• Animal figures: sometimes look more sophisticated than they are; a peacock is quite straightforward to cut
• Chess pieces: a real eye-catcher in the front yard
• Imaginative hedges: beautiful garden images can be created from dense box hedges

The latter in particular is known from the baroque gardens of the 15th century. and 16. Century: low, curved hedges result in a wide variety of shapes and patterns if you look down on them from above. After all, who says that a hedge always has to be strictly straight?

Integration into the garden design

Whichever shape you choose, it is relevant that it blends in harmoniously with the respective garden style. In a wild natural garden, for example, an avenue of low box trees with a square-cut crown might look a bit out of place. To check the effect before pruning, it is best to draw a plan of your garden and also think about how to insert the cut book. Should this stand as a single eye-catcher in the middle of a lawn or do you want a whole Form Buchsallee along the main path, which is also inserted into a floor-covering flower landscape will?

Frequent pruning maintains the shape

Remember that you do the book characters regularly trimming need to keep them in shape. Basically, at least two prunings per vegetation period are mandatory, whereby the topiary takes place between mid-May and mid-June, whereas the maintenance cut is to be made by mid-August at the latest is. If necessary - for example in the case of vigorous varieties - scissors can be used more often, provided that you keep a time interval of at least four weeks. The main pruning time in this case is between April and September; boxwood is not pruned in winter.

Templates make cutting easier

If you already have experience in cutting box figures, you can often cut them freehand. Everyone else is using one template, with which the topiary is practically child's play. You can purchase a wide variety of stencils, but you can also make them yourself. The latter is useful for cutting geometric figures, for example.