Boxwood and summer snowflakes in New Orleans
For centuries, boxwood (Buxus spp.) has been a key element of many parterres 鈥� flat, symmetrical designs that look two-dimensional when seen from above. can be as fancy or as simple as you like.
At the in New Orleans鈥檚 French Quarter, the walled parterre is comparatively simple but proportionate to the size of the dwelling.
Tight, low boxwood hedges enclose planting beds packed in early February with summer snowflakes () on one side and red brick paths on the other. The garden鈥檚 focal point, located in a brick circle at the center of the parterre, is a cast-iron fountain from which the surrounding beds radiate.
I love how colors play off each other in the BK winter garden. Red brick walls and paths unify the vertical and horizontal planes, making the complementary green boxwood edging stand out. Multiple shades of green create winter color patterns. The blue-green foliage of leucojum contrasts with the boxwood鈥檚 bright yellow-green new growth, a pairing echoed in the dark green shutters and yellow walls of the house.
You can use this elegantly simple plant combination in most parts of the United States. Leucojum is a hardy bulb in . It prefers moist, well-drained soil and full sun to part shade.
In the Zone 9 climate of New Orleans, leucojum blooms in winter, but elsewhere it blooms in early spring. It multiplies freely and tolerates both summer drought and swampy clay soils.
Leucojum, an old-fashioned bulb of the sort you鈥檇 see in your grandma鈥檚 garden, produces with pea-green dots near the tips of the petals (tepals, actually). The cultivar 鈥楪ravetye Giant鈥� is sturdier than the species, with bigger flowers, and grows 24 inches high.
If you let common boxwood, B. sempervirens, grow naturally, it becomes a small, twisty tree with multiple trunks. At the BK house, sheared boxwood forms tight hedges. Common boxwood is hardy in Zones 6-8, with cultivars such as 鈥榁ardar Valley鈥� and 鈥榁ariegata鈥� hardy to Zone 5.
Littleleaf boxwood, B. microphylla, is by nature a dense rounded three- to four-foot shrub that's hardy in Zones 5 to 9, with cultivars such as 鈥楪reen Mountain鈥� and 鈥楪reen Velvet鈥� hardy in Zone 4.
No matter which boxwood you grow, it will need regular shearing to maintain a tight, formal look. Easily sculpted, it adapts beautifully to topiary and hedging, either straight or with baroque loops and interlaces.
Penelope O鈥橲ullivan is one of eight garden writers who blog regularly at Diggin' It. She is the author of "The Homeowner's Complete Tree & Shrub Handbook" (Storey Publishing) and 11 more books on trees, shrubs, hedges, flowers, herbs, and garden design. She is a guest speaker on many gardening topics, has written and scouted for numerous magazines, and owns a garden design business in New Hampshire.
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