Laura Boissonnault’s cottage garden is a lush New Jersey oasis that serves as a canvas for creativity as she explores new and exciting plants. Chronicling her gardening journey at “How’s It Growing?,” every season, master gardener Laura shows how charm and structure meld in perfect harmony in the landscape. At the core of Laura’s garden design are boxwoods, which lend both form and elegance to her cottage-style landscape. Lining pathways, serving as container accents, and providing living boundaries, Laura’s boxwoods have become a central feature of her landscape. But when her legacy boxwoods were threatened, she turned to Better Boxwood® for beautiful, hard-working new varieties that will lend beauty and structure to her garden for years to come. Better Boxwood offers the charm and appeal of timeless and classic boxwood, with increased resilience and disease resistance for the modern garden.
With its ability to balance functional structure and timeless appeal, Better Boxwood Babylon Beauty™ was the ideal new addition to this dreamy, ever-changing garden retreat. The variety lines the path to Laura’s front door, providing a whimsical yet orderly introduction to the landscape. Blight-resistant with exceptional hardiness and a conveniently compact form, Babylon Beauty is ideal for a lower-growing border or hedge.
Whether you’re working with a spacious yard or a cozy corner, Laura’s approach offers inspiring ideas you can bring home. Let’s dive into each of these techniques to see how boxwoods can add both structure and romance to your own garden:
Patio Planters
Laura’s front porch is accented with attractive boxwood topiaries. With their striking form and classic elegance, they lend an artistic appeal to containers. With the convenience of a container, they can be moved or restyled periodically to complement holiday décor or seasonal accents.
Try the look: Create topiaries or boxwood balls with Renaissance™ or Babylon Beauty™ and pair them with a vivid heucherella and variegated ivy for a contrasting pop of color. These two varieties take exceptionally well to pruning and will provide dense, color-rich topiaries at an easily maintained size.
Garden Borders & Hedges
Laura’s eye-catching porch is bordered by an attractive boxwood hedge. Densely planted and crisply pruned, the hedge adds an evergreen backdrop to perennials and annuals planted in the bed below and reflects the clean lines of the home’s architecture.
Try the look: Create a low-maintenance and visually appealing alternative to a traditional fence living fence with Skylight™ that benefits both your property and the environment. For a creeping, low-growing hedge, Babylon Beauty™ offers a verdant option with lighter green foliage. And for a low border to elegantly frame perennials, Renaissance™ serves as an excellent parterre.
Front Entry Path
A low path of pruned boxwoods in ball, pyramid, or box form makes for a memorable home entry. The easy maintenance and superior disease resistance of Better Boxwoods make them ideal for these statement plantings. While they take a bit of annual pruning to grow into their iconic forms, you can be confident that the exceptional performance of Better Boxwood guarantees enjoyment for decades to come.
Try the look: Take a page out of Laura’s book and pair Babylon Beauty™ or Heritage™ boxwood balls with seasonal annuals such as pansies.
By incorporating Better Boxwood into your landscape, you can enjoy the beauty of traditional boxwood with the added benefit of increased resilience and disease resistance. Whether you’re creating a formal hedge, a whimsical topiary, or an attractive accent planting, boxwood is a versatile choice that will elevate your garden’s beauty for years to come.