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www.taranakidailynews.co.nz Friday, April 16, 2010 TARANAKI DAILY NEWS 13

GARDENING www.taranakidailynews.co.nz

Alternatives to buxushedging – a step-by-stepguide with Abbie Jury

Photos: JONATHAN CAMERON

With buxus blightcutting aswathe through

many city and coastalgardens, it is clear theproblem is here to stay.I’ve set out to reviewsome of the alternativeplant options with helpfrom Carol Ingram atFairfields and BrianAvison at Big Jims. Theadvantages of box forlow hedging is that itonly needs to be trimmedonce or possibly twice ayear, it has a very smallleaf, a good dark greencolour, sprouts frombare wood if trimmedhard and is so easy toroot from cutting that itis cheap to buy and easyfor home gardeners topropagate themselves. Itwill also tolerate acertain amount of shade.Sadly, there is no like-for-like replacement,only plants that fit someof the criteria.

1Lonicera nitida ticks all the right boxes bar one, but that isan important one. It has good dark colour, tiny leaves, iseasy to propagate, cheap . . . but it grows so rapidly that you

will have to clip frequently. This may be as much as once a monthin the growing season. It will get very twiggy and leggy if youdon’t keep it tightly clipped.

2Myrtus ugni, usually referred to as the New Zealandcranberry, has lovely little leaves, is easy to strike fromcutting, easy to train and can be kept low. It also has

delicious fruit, but can develop bare patches, so it’s really only anoption for the edible garden area. It also doesn’t like shade andcan be thrip-prone.

3Gumpo or Kurume azaleas are the small-leaf, low-growing, evergreen azaleas. They have goodfoliage – though the leaves are larger than buxus – clip well, can be kept small and have excellentshade tolerance. They flower, which some gardeners may not want. Gumpos tend to have larger

flowers than the Kurumes. The big disadvantages are the expense per plant (which will be prohibitivefor many gardeners) and the difficulty in sourcing large-enough runs of the same variety. Evergreenazaleas are much easier to strike from cutting than most rhododendrons, so keen home gardeners witha long-term view may want to try building the population up at home.

4Some of the slow growing, small-leafed camellia varieties are suitable, though the leaves willbe larger than buxus. They trim well, resprout from bare wood and are a good colour. Thereis a limited number suitable for keeping down to a metre or even 30cm, so varietal selection

is important. Camellias are not easy to root from cutting for the home gardener and can beexpensive to buy. Microphylla and brevistyla set seed freely, so could be raised from seed athome if you can find a parent plant. We featured brevistyla in Plant Collector last week. Itty Bit,pictured here, is a true miniature for low hedges. Night Rider is also suitable but, though very slowgrowing, is ultimately larger in size. You could keep it to a metre, but it will be expensive to buy.

5There are assorted selections ofsmall-leaved euonymus being hailedas buxus replacements, including one

named Emerald Gem. These look verypromising, but international reports arethat euonymus are somewhat diseaseprone. We would recommend tryingthis as hedging in a modest way beforegetting too carried away. It should berelatively easy to root cuttings and issometimes available in a hedginggrade at a reasonable price. Optionssuch as corokia and selectedpittosporums will make good tallerhedges, but you are fightingnature to keep them to the lowlevel of edging buxus. Their

leaves are also correspondinglylarger. The compact pittosporums

– Golf Ball, pictured here, andsimilar selections – make a quick

option for clipping balls and topiary,if you don’t mind the paler shade of

green. Keep them in full sun withplenty of air movement, too. Other

suggestions include muhlenbeckia,Myrsine divaricata or a new dwarf

corokia, but we have yet to hear ofhedges that have stood the test of time –

by which we mean 10 years, not one.There are no easy answers for a

replacement for buxus.

Balchik Botanic Garden, BulgariaThe botanic garden of Balchik isn’t really abotanic garden, but the seaside residence ofQueen Marie of Romania. She employed Italiansand Swiss to lay out her the grounds – she calledthe place her Nest of Quiet – in the 1920s. It iscomposed of a series of romantic enclosurespunctuated by her collection of craftware,including massive terracotta jars from Morocco,gravestones, even a marble throne fromFlorence. The garden descends to the water in aseries of terraces. Features include a Cretanlabyrinth, a French formal garden and animpressive cactus garden.