Hi, I'm Donna Emery from Glover Nursery in West Jordan, Utah. We're going to learn how to thicken up a variegated boxwood hedge. This is a variegated English boxwood. The word variegated means that there's more than one color in the leaf, these are green leaves that are edged with a creamy white. Variegated plants need a little bit of extra care because they don't as much chlorophyll in their leaves, they can't grow as vigorously. The white part does not have any chlorophyll and chlorophyll is what helps to turn the sun's energy into sugars and starches to feed the plant. So, this plant is not going to get as much nourishment as a solid green plant. It also is more susceptible to sunburn because of those delicate white leaves. So, for that reason, I would put this plant in a partly shaded location, it likes some sun, but not all day hot sun. If your hedge is getting a little bit thin in places, maybe from old age or from disease or insects. There are some things you can do to thicken it up and bring it back to the fullness it had when it was younger. Pruning can help stimulate thicker growth down towards the bottom of the plant. So, you can lightly prune your boxwood all over to stimulate some new growth. When you prune any hedge, you should try and keep it slightly A shaped or A framed. You want it to narrower at the top, than it is at the bottom. Let these bottom leaves grow out and thin it back at the top. The reason you do that, is so the sun can hit all edges more evenly. If you have the top too wide and the bottom too narrow, the bottom branches die out and you end up with a thin, leggy hedge. So, keeping the top thinned back, a little narrower than the bottom, you're going to have a healthier hedge. Fertilize it, water it well and it should thicken up If not, go back to the nursery, find the same little plant in a smaller size and plant one of those smaller ones in between all of the gaps left in your hedge. That way, you'll get a solid, dense hedge a lot faster. This is Donna Emery from Glover Nursery.
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