Specialty Gardening: An Experiment, 0 by LeawoodGardener

LeawoodGardener wrote:
The boxwood is "Winter Gem" - one of three varieties I can say are readily available and dependable in this climate. The others are "Winter Green" and "Green Velvet". I've tried others like "True English" and found they couldn't take the zone 5 climate. "Winter Gem" is a hardy grower - I usually trim it 3-4 times during the season (May-October).

A few years ago I came across some unusual boxwood at the Home Depot store I frequent. I liked it for it's tiny leaf and compact habit - the variety was "Justin Brouwer", and they only had 12 plants, so I bought them all as an experiment. It was October when I bought them and I figured if they made it through the winter, I'd use that variety somewhere in a hedge. The plants came through the winter without losing so much as a leaf, so I started asking around at local nurseries to see if I could find the variety (the folks at Home Depot had no clue about it and said they cannot 'order' specific plants, they just set out whatever they receive). It is very tough, compact and slow-growing - perfect for a hedge you don't want to trim every eight weeks.

None of the local nurseries had ever heard of the variety and nobody seemed interested in finding and ordering it, so I gave up and used "Winter Gem" for the hedge around this garden.
A very astute gardener on the Dave's Garden site suggested I contact a nursery in Kentucky - Pine View Nursery (www.pineviewnursery.com). They were not only familiar with the variety, they offered to grow me whatever quantity I wanted! Just about when I heard from them, the bottom fell out of the economy, my income dropped 65% and my investments disappeared, so I put a large hedge project on 'hold' (I guess you could say my 'hedge funds' disappeared - LOL). I'm saving the variety name, however, and WILL use it sometime/somewhere in my garden.