Buxus Microphylla Faulkner Small Leaved Box

Buxus Microphylla Faulkner is an RHS AGM-winning dwarf variety of box that only reaches 1.5 metres tall. It has shiny green leaves and tiny pollinator-magnet flowers in spring. It’s a good choice for topiary, low hedges and ground cover.

Buxus, better known in the UK as Box, is a tough evergreen that reaches 30 metres in height and is native to a wide area from southern Britain, to northwest Africa, and southwest Asia. The native plant has spawned a wide variety of cultivars such as this variety bred from ‘Japonica’ called Small Leaved Box Faulkner (synonymous with Buxus Sempervirens Faulkner).

Buxus Microphylla Faulkner is said to be more resistant to box blight and therefore a good choice in blight prone areas. It has very dense growth that forms a rounded mound which is a bit different from common box that’s not only darker in colour but tends to grow upright.

Faulkner’s leaves are small, deep green and very glossy with nicely contrasting tiny yellow flowers in springtime that are immediately smothered with bees.

It’s an excellent choice for low evergreen hedges and handsome ground cover.

Height And Spread of Buxus Microphylla Faulkner
This is a dwarf variety of box that only reaches 1.5 metres in height and spread at its maximum size. It’s dense, bushy and forms a mound at a slow growth rate of 10-15 cms per year.

How Hardy is Buxus Microphylla Faulkner
Buxus is hardy in the UK if it’s grown in a well-drained spot. It tolerates both acid and alkaline soils and copes well with drought once established.

How To Use Buxus Microphylla Faulkner
Small Leaved Box Faulkner is an adaptable shrub that’s perfect for low hedges, topiary, knot gardens, parterres, walkway edging, ground cover, and easy-care plant containers on a balcony or patio. It’s low maintenance too, so it suits front gardens, wildlife gardens, and busy gardeners without lots of time to deadhead, stake, and water.

Try planting Faulkner with other evergreens such as conifers or the darker green common box for year-round contrasting colour in country cottage style gardens or modern outside spaces.

How To Care for Buxus Microphylla Faulkner
Small Leaved Box Faulkner will grow in full sun or partial shade in exposed or sheltered areas. It tolerates most types of soil, growing particularly well on chalk, although it will grow in most well-drained soils and well-watered and fed containers too. If you’re growing Faulkner in a container, raise the pot up on feet during winter to prevent waterlogging that will rot its roots.

You can trim this evergreen when it looks untidy or carry out renovation pruning in late spring after the flowers have finished.

Give it a thick layer of mulch in early spring and a feed of liquid fertiliser after hard pruning to boost its health and colour.