Guide to Making Box Ball

Last Updated on June 29, 2022 by Real Men Sow

Topiaries are fun and an inexpensive way of enjoying your garden. Box balls are the simplest kind of topiaries, so, if you haven’t done topiaries before, this is the basic one to start. Buy a tray of rooted cuttings and follow the step-by-step guide below. Remember, it would take about two years for the sphere to fully develop.

Materials Needed For Box Ball 

Steps In How to Make a Box Ball

  1. Pot the cuttings individually to your 10cm pots, trim them initially light to encourage their bushy base. Put the pots outdoors or in a cold frame afterwards. Remember to keep them well fed and watered right for them to grow.
  2. New plants will have rooted fully by two months, and this is where you should start moving them into a decorative pot (large). Fill the pot with loam-based compost and space them fairly closely for them to knit together as they grow. Pinching them out would help make the growth denser.
  3. Liquid feed and watering regularly would help them grow well without their leaves turning brown. The growing season is the time to trim them a little, remove the tips once there’s new growth of (2-3cm)
  4. A decent-sized sphere would appear within two to three years. Keep on feeding the plants, and watering them regularly. Top-dress the pot every Spring, or you can repot them in a larger container with loam-based compost. Slow-release feed granules along with loam-based compost would help maintain good growth. Trim them with shears twice a year. 

Note:

Hand shears make the best tools, as they provide you with the most control. Use secateurs on any thicker stems.

To get the best control of cutting, hand sears would do the trick. However, you should use secateurs on thick stems.

Real Men Sow
Real Men Sow

Hello, I’m Pete and I’m currently based in the west of Scotland, in a small place called Rosneath, where I’m exploring my garden adventures. I personally started gardening around 6 years ago and initially, I started out by growing my favorite fruits and berries, such as strawberries, Raspberries & Gooseberries. Since then I’ve added a lot of vegetables and working closely with my neighbor, it’s been a lot of fun.