Boxwood Aversion. Help with a long driveway!

Do I want to get rid of these established boxwoods? I don't like them. 19 or 20 up the driveway. How do I get them out? What can I replace them with? Could I use "burning bushes"?

First, if you do wish to get rid of the boxwoods, if they are established and large, you might want to see if anybody is willing to dig them. Nice, big established boxwoods are expensive.

Burning bush? Not a great choice. That is an invasive plant that is doing harm to American eco-systems. Besides, it is purely a one season of interest plant. In North Carolina, you have so many other excellent choices.

Give us an idea of the site (sun, shade, soil pH, etc.), what you are hoping to achieve by planting new plants (screening, ornament, season of interests, etc.), and the approximate size and shape you would like the plants to ultimately attain. I'm sure you'll get some great suggestions.

Scott

I was surprised to hear your comment about burning bush. When I lived in Connecticut, we had a beautiful hedge. It was self contained - lawn on one side and a pool, and concrete patio on on the other. While it was definitely eye catching in the fall, it was nice hedge in the spring and summer as well.

They received full day sun.

I've heard that Azaleas occupy mass planting all throughout your part of the country so I won't spend any time telling you just how much I like them, I will try to come up with something interesting still however and something that can be easily pruned to keep it manageable.

How about a row of the following plants:

Physocarpus opulifolius 'Diablo' (Ninebark) "Chocolate in Color"
Hibiscus syriacus 'Bluebird' or 'Blue Satin' (Rose of Sharon)
Larix decidua 'Lanark' (Dwarf European Larch - Deciduous)
Spiraea thunbergii 'Ogon' / 'Mellow Yellow'
A White-Blooming tall upright Rose
A Small Trellis for Clematis 'Rhapsody' (Five feet tall x Five feet wide)
Another Spiraea thunbergii 'Ogon' / 'Mellow Yellow'
Then Another Physocarpus opulifolius 'Diablo'
Then a Weigelia florida 'Red Prince'
Then another upright (vase-shaped) Rose with the Mixtures of peach orange and red
Then a variegated Weigelia (green and gold) with pink blooms
Then a Buddleia davidii 'Black Knight'
Then a Hibiscus syriacus 'Helene'
Then a Syringa patula (Korean Lilac) followed and ended with another Larix decidua 'Lanark'

Space them at least 5 feet apart (all) and more if you have the distance to do so.

Talk about a Spring and Summer and Winter Interest Lineup!

You can get some of the oddball plants I talked about from this nursery:

http://www.variegatedfoliage.com/

Dax

Maybe on the end in instead of another Larix decidua 'Lanark' you should go with an ornamental grass with silver striping in it.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light'...real nice plant and has the height and width requirements you'd be looking for.

Dax

why not add a few fruiting shrubs to break the symmetry?
try some highbush cranberry, or dwarf blueberry ?

Many people would love to have those box...a nursery may even want to buy them from you if they are healthy ones. How about knockout roses if it is in the sun...or Rhododendrons if afternoon shade. Is it a perfectly straight driveway?

I have used alternating Artic willow (grey-green) Diablo ninebark (Dark red),and Viburnum Wentworth (bright green) to weave my way out the drive. All 3 are fountain like and I like the overhang to the drive. Both the Viburnum and ninebark have flowers at different times so lots to look at as I leave my garden. Each year I cut them back to 3' high in spring to keep its growth in control. I agree with conifer a columnar tree would be interesting to change the vertical look. Last I used Karl Forester to finish the exit to the Garden.

Straightwig,

That funny-looking dog looks like it's about to yack on your "Karl Foresters".

Scott

Oh, and about the burning bushes. I've just never been a big fan. Obviously, I'm in the minority, because they are sold by the truckload. But I just think they are so blase except for that two weeks in October. They're okay, just nothing to write home about.

Regarding the invasiveness issue, you might check with your local county extension office to see if they are a problem in your locality. Around here, they are not a huge problem. They are to be found volunteering here and there, but not in overwhelming numbers. But, apparently, in some areas they are a big nuisance. And if you live near any pristine eco-systems, I just would not take any chance.

Scott

I did a quick search for invasive plants of North Carolina:

http://www.ncwildflower.org/invasives/invasives.htm

Burning bush is listed as Rank 2 - Significant Threat.

Thanks all of you. I have to get out and do some research on the driveway. Length, etc. There are approximately 19 of them down the drive...probably planted in the 1950's. A few have succumbed to the elements, I guess, because there are a few gaps. They receive about 8 hours sun per day. My problem is that I will have very little means of watering new plantings all the way to the road. If I decide to keep them (and I probably will for this year), how and when do I prune them? They were shaped into...what else?...boxes before I bought this property. I prefer a softer, more natural look. (I will no doubt be asking lots of questions because there are scores of neglected trees and plants on these 2.6 acres.)

Are these English Box? They should have been roundish. If they were square they may not be English Box. (I mean pruned square) eewww.

Have you considered replacing them with nothing? Perhaps your landscape need not have a driveway totally lined with plants to be functional and aesthetically pleasing -- how about the open look? And remember that those occasional blizzards, if you ever see them down there, love to pile snow up on driveways lined with shrubs.

Guy S.

These are English..and after seeing the price for big boxwoods at a nursery yesterday, maybe I'll keep them. (I don't know who did the pruning on these...I bought this property in foreclosure. It had not been cared for in a couple of years.) The driveway does need something, however. There are nine or ten boxwoods as foundation plantings at the house. These have to be removed because of drainage issues. How difficult is it to transplant established boxwoods?

They are fairly shallow rooted and now would be a good time before the new growth. If they are really huge you will need a "guy" or two.

Conifer, I thought most azalea's had to have part-shade?

Sofer, you must be a master gardener because you always have the best photo's of your landscaping!!!

Years ago I had all white azaleas along my driveway...they became all different sizes and shapes so that it looked like a "his and hers" driveway. I took them all out and planted ventricosa hostas..nothing in winter.

It's a good thing my back is to a windowless wall that's all I can say. If any of the local "horned rodents" saw that buffet they would pester me for plane tickets. That fairly shrieks of "come and get it". Ken

LOL Oh we have them also...I spray with Deer Out...but they seem not to like the ventricosa as well as some others.

Levilyla, that is a beautiful photo

Levilyla nice approach to you home and garden. If I was walking along the road I would have to sneak up your drive for a peak. I love the hostas.

I would give my eyeteeth to have those boxwoods in my long driveway (not my Metairie house, our house in the country where I grew up--the Metairie house gardens have been ruined by Katrina). It is all a matter of personal taste and I find box looks so much nicer when it is not clipped.
My driveway was lined with arborvitae which was killed by mosquito pesticide being sprayed by the county. The diesel fuel that is in the pesticide combined with our intense sun and cooked my trees. Now, it is empty and I would love to have large boxwoods. Guy of Starhill Forest told me to leave it bare, too, but I don't like "bare."

Regardless of your preference for the open plan (bare) or not, I do agree that boxwoods, or almost any plants, are so much nicer if they aren't planted in rows and butchered into funky little balls and cubes and spirals. Let them be boxwoods -- give them their freedom! If you want a sphere, buy a gazing ball or one of those floating-granite ball fountains. If you want a geometric design of spheres, go rack up some billiar balls.

And if the plants are going to get to big for the location without clipping, move them someplace where they can be all they want to be. Natural forms, with just a tweak here and there to reinforce their artistic or structural qualities, are much superior IMHO to unimaginative clipped geometrics that need to be re-clipped every time they grow another inch. That's why I grew a beard too -- I hate shaving every day!

Guy S.

Holy cow, how did I miss that photo to levilyla's place. That's knock down drag out gorgeous!

Wow, levilyla's driveway is gorgeous. It would get so out of control in our hot, humid Louisiana climate and we'd have every snake in the book in it, but I surely would love to have it.

All of you are persuading me to keep these boxwoods! Give them some freedom. Pull out the dead ones and let the others spread. Any tips on pruning them when the "insides" seem to be dead? That is one beautiful driveway!

You are not supposed to "clip" box Just go in and break off the dead stems and other stems if you want to air it out. Put some cheasapeake green and kelp meal on them....

I don't want to sound dumb, Levilyla, but what is chesapeake green?

Come on liveoak you don't remember Bills comment on Chesapeake Green. "I never inhaled"

No, if I read it I am suffering from Katrina syndrome. Refresh my memory, please.

Bill Clinton said that he smoked Marijuana. But he didn't inhale.

I really meant to say Chesapeake BLUE for your box...there is also a Chesapeake Green. It is a fertilizer...the blue is ground up oyster shells I believe....Box like a neutral soil...not too much acid or too much lime. Google it.