A Detailed Guide to Creating a Boxwood Cone Topiary

The following instructions explain how to trim a potted boxwood into a cone shape about 50 cm tall. Plants grown in the open ground in a garden can also be trimmed using the same method, with no height limit. Unless the plant exceeds the required height by more than 5 cm, do not remove the leader shoot.

Materials needed

1 untrimmed potted common boxwood (Buxus sempervirens), evenly grown with a strong apical dominance. Sharp pruning shears.

Pruning method  

1. In early summer, place the potted boxwood on level ground.

2. Stand above the potted boxwood and look down, fix your line of sight on the central vertical line, hold the pruning shears, and following the angle required for the cone, cut a line downward from the center to establish the cone's edge line.

3. Repeat the above operation.

4. Clear away the cut branches and leaves.

5. Step back and examine the trimmed boxwood cone; it may have gaps, but as long as you water and fertilize regularly, these gaps will eventually fill in.

6. Carry out 1 supplementary pruning in midsummer and 1 at the end of summer. From then on, prune 1 to 2 times each summer every year.