I have a dilemma. Our few days of Arctic freeze -40C in the winter of 2024 combined with low snow cover created a few serious dieback events in the garden.

My huge tree peony died back to the base as did my Kolkwitzia. Both those shrubs are trying to recover but my boxwood (Buxus, variety unknown)globes look terrible. The once 3’ globes are now 18” brown globes. I sheared them down in hopes they might start showing fresh green growth but alas, it is only coming from the base. So dilemma is this; do I wait for a few seasons for the box to recover or replace them? The Ivy beside the Box, a menace to those in warmer climes, also died back giving us a very brown area where once was lush green. The newer variety Buxus x ‘Calgary’ might do better than these old two but knowing Box does not like hot roots I am favouring removing them.

Above: My garden before and now, Box clearly in view

These two Box shrubs were focal points in the garden, one either side of the top of stairs to the upper part of the garden. They gave structure to my otherwise somewhat chaotic style. I loved giving them a spring hair cut each year, clipping them into a smooth almost spherical green form.

Box are known for being perfect candidates for topiary work. Topiary is the art of pruning and clipping plants into appealing sculptural forms and shapes. Yew is also commonly used for this gardening fantasy work. You may well have seen photographs of hedges clipped into undulating shapes or shrubs formed into oversized cats. In our zone three climate however Box is not the best candidate as it is more fussy about conditions and Yew is very slow growing.

I perused the nursery today and examined several plants I thought might work as an alternative. I was looking for close branch structure, small dense leaves, fast growth and an attractive colour. I settled on Dwarf Birch as a possibility. My search reminded me of a topiary garden in Alaska we visited a few years ago. At  Mile 1823 on the Glenn Hwy, Alaska, a couple of hours south of Anchorage and an hour from Glennallen, a village population around 400,  is a liquor store sitting alone on the rugged hiway.

The owners had clipped many of the wild shrubs on their property into mostly egg shaped or sphere like forms. If it can be done there I thought, it can be done with any shrub. I really don’t remember the shrubs used but I believe they were native Serviceberries, Amelanchiers, Willow, Salix and probably Alaskan Birch, Betula.  In an Alaskan climate the shrubs are naturally more stunted in their growth which helps.  Of course the aspiration in my head is to achieve something as grand as can be seen at Great Dixter, an internationally known garden in the U.K.

On the grand estates of the world these sinuous shapes and forms are achieved by hand clipping the chosen tree or shrub. This is done to prevent unnecessary tearing and damage to the plant material. I am afraid I like the speed of my electric hand shears! The result may not be as horticulturally perfect but the effect is pretty good.  This is another factor to consider when choosing a shrub. Can it withstand electric clippers? Our Alpine Currant hedge tolerates the hedge trimmer very well but unfortunately the growth is not dense enough for what I am looking for.

Above: Topiary as anchors in perennial border, Dixter U.K and Topiary Meadow, Dixter, U.K.

As a point of design, a clipped something gives definition to a garden. Whether it is clipped edges if a lawn, a clipped hedge, mown path or clipped shrubs, there is something about that clean edge, that no matter the chaos elsewhere, the sharp edge contrasted against the softness in the rest of the garden gives an appearance of definition and care.

I will likely swap out these two older variety Box for either the ‘Calgary’ variety or use ‘Cesky Gold’ Dwarf Birch. I will keep you posted. If anyone out there has advice I would love to hear it.

Oh, and as a point of interest, we don’t have box blight here even though my shrubs might resemble those with the disease!