Boxwood Companion Plants for Every Garden Style

Boxwoods provide year-round structure and deep green color, forming a foundation in landscape design. Their dense foliage and versatile forms make them a popular choice for everything from formal hedges to standalone specimens. Selecting the right companion plants can elevate a garden by introducing layers of texture, form, and color that highlight the boxwood’s presence. This guide explores how to combine plants to complement boxwoods.

Choosing the Right Companion Plants

Successful companion planting begins with understanding the environmental needs of boxwood. These shrubs perform best in partial shade, especially with protection from harsh afternoon sun, though many cultivars tolerate full sun. They prefer well-drained soil that retains even moisture and is not too sandy or heavy with clay. Plants grown alongside boxwoods should share these preferences for light, water, and soil.

Beyond shared growing conditions, effective pairings rely on contrast. The fine texture of boxwood’s small, dense leaves creates a backdrop that highlights the features of other plants. Introducing plants with broad leaves, airy foliage, or different shapes creates visual interest. Pairing the static, rounded form of a boxwood with the upright spikes of a perennial or the arching habit of an ornamental grass adds a dynamic quality. Color contrast from both flowers and foliage further enhances the design.

Best Perennials to Plant with Boxwood

Perennials form a long-term framework with boxwoods. For sunny locations, lavender’s silvery foliage and fragrant purple flower spikes contrast with the dark green of boxwood. Both plants thrive in full sun and well-drained soil. Coneflower (Echinacea) and Salvia are other sun-loving options; coneflowers offer large, daisy-like blooms, while the vertical flower spikes of Salvia add a different form and intense color.

In part-shade, hostas are a great partner for boxwoods. Their large, broad leaves, in various greens, blues, and variegated patterns, offer a bold textural counterpoint. Coral bells (Heuchera) have mounding habits and foliage in shades from lime green to deep burgundy. The leaf colors of coral bells can brighten shadier spots and provide year-round interest.

To introduce both flowers and contrasting leaf shapes, daylilies and peonies are good choices. Daylilies have grassy, arching foliage and produce a succession of trumpet-shaped flowers. Peonies offer large blooms in late spring and have deeply cut foliage that remains lush throughout the season, providing a soft texture against boxwood hedges.

Adding Annuals for Seasonal Interest

Annual plants introduce vibrant, temporary color and fill gaps in beds or containers. Because they complete their life cycle in a single season, they provide the flexibility to experiment with new color schemes each year. Their continuous blooming ensures a display from spring until the first frost.

For sunny gardens, petunias are available in nearly every color and growth habit, from mounding to trailing. They can spill over container edges or create a colorful carpet at the base of a boxwood hedge. In shadier locations, impatiens and begonias provide season-long color. Impatiens come in pink, red, orange, and white, while begonias offer both colorful flowers and interesting foliage.

Pairing with Other Shrubs and Grasses

Incorporating other shrubs and ornamental grasses with boxwoods creates a layered and structurally diverse garden. These larger plants can serve as backdrops, add height, or introduce different forms and textures. This approach adds interest across multiple scales.

Hydrangeas are a popular shrub to plant with boxwoods, offering large, coarse-textured leaves and flower heads that contrast with the boxwood’s fine form. This pairing is effective for a timeless, elegant look. Roses also grow well with boxwoods, with the evergreen hedge providing a green backdrop for the colorful blossoms.

Ornamental grasses complement the solid form of boxwoods by adding movement and a soft, airy texture. Feather Reed Grass, with its vertical habit and feathery plumes, can create an upright accent behind a low boxwood hedge. For a softer effect along a border, Liriope (lilyturf) forms neat, grass-like clumps that can provide a fine-textured edge.

Boxwood Companion Planting Design Ideas

The principles of pairing can be applied to create specific garden styles, from structured to relaxed and natural. By combining boxwoods with the right companions, you can achieve a cohesive design theme. Each style uses boxwood’s structure in a distinct way.

A formal garden design uses symmetry and clean, geometric lines. In this style, boxwoods are clipped into low hedges to create parterres or outline pathways and flower beds. Within these evergreen frames, uniform plantings of a single companion, such as lavender or roses, enhance the sense of order. The repetition of color and form creates a sophisticated atmosphere.

For an informal cottage garden, boxwoods provide structure amidst a mix of textures and colors. They might be grown as rounded shrubs rather than tightly clipped hedges, anchoring a border filled with various perennials. Plants like coneflowers, daylilies, and salvia can be planted in relaxed drifts around the boxwoods, creating an abundant display.

A modern garden design uses clean lines, bold forms, and a minimalist plant palette. Geometric boxwood shapes, such as spheres or cubes, can be used as sculptural elements. These are often contrasted with simple plantings of ornamental grasses like Feather Reed Grass for verticality or large-leaved hostas for bold texture. The focus is on the interplay of shape and foliage rather than floral color.