Petite Pillar™ Boxwood foliage

Petite Pillar™ Boxwood foliage

(Photo courtesy of NetPS Plant Finder)

Other Names:  Common Box

Description:

An excellent dwarf boxwood with a natural columnar form; ideal for formal hedges or accents in tight places, requiring little to no pruning to keep its shape; slow growing; takes pruning exceptionally well; widely adaptable and suited for containers

Ornamental Features

Petite Pillar™ Boxwood is primarily valued in the garden for its rigidly columnar form. It has dark green evergreen foliage. The small glossy oval leaves remain dark green throughout the winter.

Landscape Attributes

Petite Pillar™ Boxwood is a dense multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a narrowly upright and columnar growth habit. Its relatively fine texture sets it apart from other landscape plants with less refined foliage.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and can be pruned at anytime. It is a good choice for attracting bees to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Petite Pillar™ Boxwood is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Hedges/Screening
• General Garden Use
• Topiary
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Petite Pillar™ Boxwood will grow to be about 3 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 24 inches. It tends to fill out right to the ground and therefore doesn't necessarily require facer plants in front. It grows at a slow rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 40 years or more.

This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type, but has a definite preference for alkaline soils. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Petite Pillar™ Boxwood makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.