Alternative to Box Hedge
Posted by Alistair on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
http://www.aberdeengardening.co.uk/
The ongoing problem with the Box blight has taken its toll. It started Summer 2008 resulting in at least fifty per cent of the plants leaves turning grey and falling off. A very sorry sight indeed, however by Spring this year 2009 it was looking promising, many of the plants which appeared dead were growing new leaves and by July recovery seemed very likely. Unfortunately by mid September the blight had returned with a new ferocity and had virtually destroyed the hedge completely. Dead hedging in the garden is not a pretty sight, no more ado but to remove it.
We decided to plant a new hedge, replacing with Box obviously would have been foolhardy. After narrowing down to a couple of options we made our decision. The first and possibly the preferred choice was 
Ilex Crenata, a slow growing evergreen Holly from Japan. This non prickly plant is fully hardy, has tiny leaves like Box and I promise it would be hard to tell them apart.
Our second option is the one we have settled for, Taxus Baccata (Yew). Well ok the price of this one suited our pockets best and although Yew is not so similar to Box, nevertheless this evergreen plant is extremely hardy looks good and constantly is used for topiary and hedging. Initially the young plants have a loose straggly habit which firms up nicely after several trims. My intention is to keep this hedge at about fourteen inches tall, more often if a short hedge is required Yew is grown to twenty four inches. However I have reason to believe that this plant which can be rejuvenated by cutting back to stumps after decades of being in the ground will behave well enough if kept dwarfed. unless of course anyone knows differently.
If you are interested in purchasing Yew hedging here is a link for the company which I used, I am very confident in recommending them. http://www.scotplantsdirect.co.uk/hedging/hedging/yew/taxus-baccata-yew-30-40cm-12-18ins-pot-grown/prod_586.html
This is a good example of a Yew hedge (not mine)
Filed in Gardens in general, Our Garden |
Anne Targontsidison 29 Nov 2009 at 6:34 pm 1Hello
Was very interested to come across your site.I was searching for alternatives to box as some box hedging i recently planted was ravaged by blight this year. I ,like yourself am going to remove it and was looking for a good alternative you have persuaded me to plant yew instead of ilex crenata- I think it will establish a bit quicker and I am going to keep it around the 14 inches.
Regards
Anne Targontsidis
Alistair says
Good luck with the Yew. Plants may look a bit straggly for a while, but will soon firm up with gentle pruning.