Glencoe Boxwood: A Practical Guide to Choosing, Planting, and Caring for This Cold-Hardy Favorite Glencoe boxwood is a cold-hardy evergreen shrub prized for its dense, rounded shape, glossy green leaves, and dependable performance through harsh northern winters. It is one of the most widely planted boxwoods in the Midwest and Northeast, where traditional English boxwood … Read more

Green Gem Boxwood: The Slow-Growing Globe That Brings Formal Structure to Cold Gardens Green Gem boxwood is a compact, slow-growing evergreen shrub known for its naturally round shape, deep green leaves, and exceptional winter hardiness. Even without regular pruning, it forms a tidy globe that looks as though it had been carefully clipped. That makes … Read more

Northern Charm Boxwood: The Compact, Cold-Hardy Boxwood From Northern Illinois Northern Charm boxwood is a compact, cold-hardy evergreen shrub selected in northern Illinois for gardens where winters are too harsh for most boxwoods. It forms a dense, oval to rounded mound of small, glossy green leaves, with a fine texture that recalls Korean boxwood. It … Read more

Chicagoland Green boxwood is a cold-hardy evergreen shrub selected at the Chicago Botanic Garden for one demanding job: staying green and healthy through the long, windy winters of northern Illinois. It forms a dense, rounded mound of glossy green leaves that closely resembles classic English boxwood. Unlike English boxwood, however, it tolerates the harsh cold … Read more

The best boxwood varieties for Zone 3 gardens are the toughest, most cold-hardy boxwoods ever bred. Even these shrubs are at the very edge of their range in Zone 3. That zone covers northern Minnesota, much of North Dakota, northern Wisconsin and Michigan, parts of Montana, Wyoming, and the high-elevation Rockies, and northern Maine. There, … Read more

The best boxwood varieties for Zone 6 gardens have to handle winter lows of –10°F to 0°F, drying winter winds, and humid summers. In many areas they also face boxwood blight and the box tree moth. Zone 6 covers a wide band of the United States, including cities such as Columbus, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, … Read more

Learning how to protect boxwoods from winter damage can save gardeners the disappointment of discovering orange, brown, or bare shrubs when the snow melts. Boxwood is one of the most widely planted evergreens in American gardens, but its small, glossy leaves stay on the plant all winter. That leaves them exposed to drying wind, bright … Read more

The best boxwood varieties for hedges combine dense growth, small evergreen leaves, good winter color, and the ability to take regular shearing without thinning out. Boxwood has been the classic hedge plant for formal gardens for centuries. It edges walkways and parterres, outlines beds, and forms low walls of green around homes. Not every variety … Read more