If you had visited Williamsburg Colonial Village this season or past Christmas seasons, you will marvel at what people can do with natural plant materials, without artificial plastic imported objects. Fifteenth century Europe used boxwood for engraving and printing because boxwood was thought to be the best wood for molds due to its ability to keep detailed designs so well. Some of the commonly used varieties include American Boxwood, English boxwood caterpillar, Korean Boxwood and Green Velvet Boxwood.

In first century BC in Greece, wealthy Romans not only graced their villas with boxwood plantings, often in topiary form, but also chose this spectacular hard wood to make assorted boxes, both decorative and practical, hand-carved ornaments, flutes, utensils, wood overlay, combs and tablets.

The American Boxwood is easily the most versatile and useful Boxwood when it comes to creating outdoor plants. All boxwood shrubs have broad, shallow roots, so you have to be careful not to cultivate very closely around them as the digging and planting might cause damage to their fragile root system.

And instead of putting the evergreen artificial ivy, you can use the artificial boxwood hedge made of artificial azaleas or artificial bougainvilleas for a more floral effect. Another reason why many gardeners are looking to add the boxwood to their lawn space is because of the small flowers of the bush.

The creation of fake boxwood can duplicate the effect of a natural hedge or a trimmed hedge. Leafminer is the larva of a small, orange tiny fly that is less than 1/8 inch long and can be seen swarming around the boxwood in the spring. The azaleas are a little more work than the boxwood was; we water them through the summer and apply acid once or twice a year.

Boxwood shrubs have tiny vibrant green evergreen leaves that look very clean and attractive if pruned regularly. If left untreated, the infestation can cause serious leaf loss and even result in the death of the boxwood. American Boxwood are used greatly for making hedges because of how well they respond to pruning.

Boxwood is a hardy, versatile, slow growing evergreen, however there are many varieties and some grow faster than others. When I moved into my current home, the front yard was filled with a bunch of evergreen boxwood shrubs. It was a great moment when this superb Achemon Sphinx thundered up to the sheet whilst I was helping out with a moth event in Norfolk County, Ontario on Saturday night.