A live topiary arrives on a root ball that has been growing in one place for years, and the fortnight after it is planted decides how the next decade goes. The method below is what we do, and the three places people go wrong are the depth, the drainage layer and the first watering.
Everything ready before the plant comes out of its packaging. Restaged from the maker's photograph.
Before you start
Check the piece fits. The root ball has to pass through the opening with about two inches of clearance all round, which for a 24-inch ball means an opening of 28 inches or more. If that has not been checked yet, do it before anything comes out of its packaging: sizing a planter to a topiary covers the measurements and why the listed width is not the opening.
Then put the empty planter exactly where it is going to live. A large planter with wet mix and a mature plant in it is a several-hundred-pound object, and it is not going to be nudged into position afterwards.
This is the method for a living plant. An artificial piece is a different job with no soil in it at all, and that one is planting artificial topiary in pots.
1. Drainage, and the layer that does not work
Confirm the planter drains. If it has no hole, either drill one or plant into a plastic liner that lifts out, rather than planting straight into a sealed container.
Do not put a layer of gravel or crocks in the bottom “for drainage”. It is the most persistent piece of gardening folklore there is and it does the opposite of what people expect: water does not cross freely from fine soil into coarse gravel, so it perches in the soil above the gravel and the wet zone ends up higher in the pot, not lower. Cover the hole with a piece of mesh or a single crock so the mix does not wash out, and fill the rest with mix.
2. The mix
A container is not a garden bed. Ordinary garden soil compacts in a pot and stops draining, so use a soil-based potting compost, the sort sold as a loam-based mix, rather than a light peat-free multipurpose that will collapse in a season. A third of coarse grit or bark mixed through gives structure and keeps it open.
Boxwood wants a mix that holds moisture and still drains freely. That combination is the whole objective, and it is worth buying the better compost for a plant that will stay in there for a decade.
3. Setting the depth
This is where most container plantings are lost, and the rule is short: the top of the root ball finishes level with the finished soil surface, and no soil ever goes over the trunk.
Part-fill the planter, sit the root ball in dry and check the level before you commit. The top of the ball should sit an inch or two below the rim so there is a lip to water into, with its own surface flush with the mix around it. If it is too low, lift it out and add mix underneath. Adjusting it after backfilling is far harder than checking now.
If the root ball is wrapped, remove the burlap from a firm ball once it is sitting in position, which speeds new roots into the surrounding mix. If the ball is loose, leave the wrapping on and cut only the ties at the top, because holding the ball together matters more.
4. Backfilling and firming
Fill around the ball in layers, firming each with your fingers rather than treading it. Air pockets against the side of the root ball dry out and kill the roots at the edge, which is the quiet version of the same failure that kills plants in containers that are slightly too small.
Keep the trunk clear. Piling mix or mulch against the stem holds moisture at the collar and rots it, and this is the single most repeated instruction we give.
5. Staking, if the piece is top-heavy
A standard on a clear stem, a tall spiral or anything with a heavy head is worth supporting for its first season while roots take hold. A single cane against the stem, tied in a figure of eight so the tie does not chafe, is enough. Remove it once the plant is anchored, which for a boxwood usually means the end of the first full growing season.
In an exposed position, consider weight in the base of the planter rather than a taller stake: a few inches of coarse gravel under the mix adds ballast where it helps, at the bottom, and does not create the perched water problem because it is beneath the root zone rather than serving as a false drainage layer.
6. The first watering, and the fortnight after
Water the root ball itself, slowly and heavily, until water runs from the drainage hole. It is the ball that needs saturating, not the new mix around it, and a quick pass with a hose wets the surface and leaves the centre dry.
For the first fortnight, check the ball with a finger every couple of days rather than watering on a schedule. Boxwood roots are fine and shallow and take time to grow out of the ball they arrived on; until they do, the plant is drinking from a much smaller volume of soil than the size of the container suggests. This is the reason most newly potted boxwood struggles, and it looks exactly like a disease.
Hold off feeding for six weeks. There is enough in a fresh loam-based mix, and pushing soft growth before the roots have spread is not a favour to the plant. After that, and through the seasons that follow, the routine is in boxwood in a planter.
What we ship, and how it arrives
Live pieces up to about 42 inches travel UPS in a box built around the plant. Larger specimens go by freight on a pallet, standing upright and braced, and the carrier calls to arrange a window. The full account, including what to check before you sign, is on delivery and receiving.
Unpack a live plant the day it arrives, water it deeply, and plant it as soon as the position is ready. The plants are on live boxwood topiary; the containers are on the planters pages.
