Here it is July and we still don't have all the pruning finished in our garden. New growth on some of the trees will smack you in the face if you don't watch where you are going. But the biggest pruning task — the annual clipping of the boxwood, yew and barberry globes and cones — has been done. Now it's up to me to clean up the prunings which are still surrounding most of the green shrubs.
I love the contrast of clipped shrubs and blowsy perennials or mown grass. In the picture below you can see three asymmetrical evergreens that get clipped to keep the paths and the views open. Look to the steps up to the Tea House and you can see a few of the more tightly pruned evergreens.
Take a step back and another box ball comes into view. They're everywhere. When Mark was finished pruning them he said he was not sure they really were low-maintenance — which is the reason we initially planted them. He might be right, as I counted 50 shrubs that need an annual clipping to keep their rounded shape plus two that are pruned into squares.
Luckily my twelve Buxus 'Morris Midget' don't need any attention. I first bought ten of these little charmers in 2010 for $6.00 each. You can see the petite size seven years later compared to my foot.
Given the fact that plants — even dwarf varieties — never stop growing, I may have to prune the midgets eventually. But it doesn't look like it will be for quite a while yet when you compare them to these big guys.
One of the boxwoods along the stairs up to the Tea House has sent out seedlings in recent years. This spring I potted them up and have them on the deck. I am not going to put them out into the garden until they are a bit bigger.
Last year I bought a pair of Buxus microphylla 'Very Dwarf' from Arrowhead Alpines Nursery. Exactly how big these might get is unknown. But they're so diminutive they really need a pot or trough to even be seen in the garden — at least at this stage. They're sweet little plants but not as sugary as pots of small flowers would feel in this spot.
