planting a clipped box hedge

[onebatmother]

Hello - a bit of an 'aspirations far beyond my experience' thing here.

I've got 40 small (6"-7") box plants, and I want to have them as a two-plants-deep border to a circular bed. I'm going to clip them into a formal shape, and the inner bit I'm going to fill with wild-ish stuff - alliums, poppies, herbs.

Does anyone
a) know how to lay a formal box hedge? Do I do it in a brick pattern? And I've no idea about how far apart I should lay them.
b) have any other easy suggestions for filling the circular bed?

What type of Buxus is it?

Is there any chance you could buy 4 x 40cm or 50cm box balls? You could then arrange the balls at 12 3 6 and 9 O' clock in your circle then fill in the gaps with the small box plants, I would guess at about 6" intervals staggered if you are planting a double row. Box is very slow growing and it will take ages to look anything much, the balls would give the whole thing a bit of structure while you wait.

I have got a couple of cheapie balls, Swedes, of different sizes, but they're going inside the circle, randomly, with a couple of smaller ones (yet to be bought). You see where I'm going with this one? Kindof minimal/contemporary/abstract, within a formal boundary.
I'm over-thinking this, aren't I?

Anyways, I absolutely see what you mean but I can't do it bcs it will be too trad with my pretentious shite contemporary approach.

Maybe I should plant them close enough to touch now, and pinch out the top shooter? (or whatever you gardeners say.. not sure that's right)

Ah. I see. More a Derek Jarmann lack of form and structure with Hampton Court topiary?

I bought two enormous buxus balls last week. DS1 says they are embarassingly suburban.

and at onebatderek

Nooo. That's much too free-form (and dull. I went there and actually had the 'a child could have done that' thought (next stop Tate Modern/monkey could've done that)

What I'd really like to do is a circle of box, clipped, packed to the edges with lots of very different sizes of balls of varying foliage, from huge to tiny, with alliums and other tall, thin stuff growing very sparsely through: so not only pretentious, but fascistically so.

You see, I can't ever do anything without over-reaching and grand-standing. Pathetic.

I have got a box hedge, grown from a bundle of rooted cuttings I bought about 7 years ago, when they were about 6 inches high. I planted them about 18 inches apart and they've only just grown enough to merge into a continuous hedge, so the idea of planting them closer together sounds good to me.

I'm a bit hazy on the theory of garden design, but (as I understand it) a formal structure or outline with plants very unstructured or assymmetrical inside it was William Morris's notion of garden design.

Oh good advice MBDK- will definitely plant them very close then.

How interesting about William Morris - I'll look that up.

Swedes did you see the amazing box balls in a Chelsea Show Garden last year (2007) - not suburban! Really urban!

is it in quite a sunny place?

lavandula stoechas is quite nice

rosa mundi rosa gallica versicolor
lunaria purpura

ehphorbia
aquilegia
asters
lamium
lupinus
digitalis
cistus
salvia

any cottage garden stuff

www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/hedging/buxus-sempervirens/classid.2000007108/

Look at this. Is fabulous, not suburban.

I am ever so sorry - the things I was talking about were yew, not box..... Please ignore me......