11 comments for “Boxwood alternative

  1. Here in Cincinnati,  SWODS,  we use taxus.

    It’s easy to find bushes that need pruning and it works good in tubes.

  2. We use redwood for stuffing/wedging at the Livermore and Murphys shows. You would also have seen it at the Sacramento show last year. Ironstone Vineyards in Murphys where we hold the Murphys show has redwood trees, and that’s where we get it. I’m not certain what they use at the Fortuna show.  The late Christine Kemp grew it in her garden.  I was told it was Cryptomeria, but when I Google cryptomeria, the images I see don’t look much like Fortuna’s wedging.

  3. Thanks but I know there are other ads shows. Could some of you please respond to what you use as stuffing material. Thanks.

  4. Anything that does not wilt or use excessive water would work.  If you had bald cypress out or tamarack, hemlock, cedar not the red, yew or cotoneaster in quantity.  We look for small soft foliage and a large quantity of material that can be cut to 4-6 inch pieces or 1 inch for the minis.    We have relied on the yew for many years in Minnesota.

  5. We used Yew in NJ. Looked every bit as good as boxwood.

    Can’t imagine boxwood is endangered!

    Jackie Turbidy

     

  6. So far I hear from 5 shows none use boxwood. So what do the other use? This is getting interesting.

  7. Dear Ceci and fellow daffodil enthusiasts,   I rarely comment on this list serv but read it avidly to gain knowledge but I do have some experience entering lots of different flowers in shows over the past fifty years.  It is very sad that you cannot use boxwood for staging.  To my knowledge it is not on the endangered list in Georgia and I doubt five or more daffodil shows in Virginia would do that.  Perhaps some other use of it has caused it to be banned.   There are some alternatives but I am not sure if they are evergreen during the winter in Virginia, but surely along the coast.  You could use cleyera ( camellia family, I think), or, pittosporum,  Those may be winterhardy only in 7,8 and  zones but burfordi holly (ilex cornuta burfordi) is hardy up through zone 4.  It is pretty, nice green and dense.  I would hesitate to use yew as I think it is poison and I try never to handle poisonous plants and have tried for fifty years not to plant shrubs like yew or oleander in my garden. I realize that daffodil bulbs are poisonous but I handle those with gloves on.   Hope these suggestions help.  I am curious as to why boxwood (Buxus} was banned.  Daffs look so lovely staged with it.  Do keep this list advised as to what y’all decide to use.          Paula Karrh,  Georgia  I 

  8. We use boxwood at the Middle TN Daffodil Society’s shows at Cheekwood in Nashville.  Cheekwood trims their boxwood for us so that has been a wonderful arrangement.  However, boxwood blight is now in our area and we have just learned that Cheekwood cannot supply their boxwood for our national show because it cannot be transported across county lines.  Luckily for us, Cheekwood assures us they can find enough boxwood to supply us with from within Williamson County where the convention hotel is located.

    In case anyone missed it, Ted Snazelle & Sharon Douglas had an article in the March 2017 Daffodil Journal “Boxwood Blight.”

  9. Concern over boxwood blight has prompted the Garden Club of Virginia to prohibit boxwood at all of their functions.  We are seeing entire yards lose their decades-old boxwood plantings to blight.  The worry is that staging material handled at a show might contaminate the exhibitors’ hands, tools, or clothing and thus be taken home to infect the exhibitors’ plantings.

  10. One year, in Georgia we lost our boxwood source. We replaced it with privet of which we have entirely too much.  It did give me a great reason to go on what I call, “a privet pull”. It makes me very happy that privet pulls out of the ground so easily! It does wilt rather quickly, so you do have to keep it in water once you’ve gotten it out of the ground. I cut the roots off, throw them away and put the branches in water.

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