Boxwoods are the small-leaved evergreen shrubs of the genus Buxus, prized above all for taking close clipping and holding a dense, precise form. Slow, fine-textured, and long-lived, they are the classic material of the low hedge, the edged parterre, and the topiary, holding their deep green through every season. Left unclipped they make soft, rounded shrubs; sheared, they become living walls and geometry.

In the landscape boxwoods are structure itself. A low box hedge defines a bed or a path; a pair frames a doorway; a clipped form anchors a garden through the bare months when everything around has gone. Their calm, even green is the perfect foil for looser, more colorful planting, and their tolerance of shade lets them bring order to spots where little else will grow tidily.

We grow boxwoods for the timeless structure they give a garden and their steady, four-season presence. Few plants hold a shape so well or age so gracefully, and a well-placed box or box hedge lends a garden a sense of permanence and craft that nothing else quite matches. Chosen and sited well, they are among the most enduring plants you can grow.

Give them well-drained soil, good air movement, and sun to part shade, and clip in the growing season to keep the form crisp. Pair the evergreen structure with our Camellias and other Small & Medium Shrubs, and set formal box against the looser color of our Herbaceous Perennials.