Boxwood ‘Green Mountain’

* Common name: Boxwood ‘Green Mountain’

* Botanical name: Buxus hybrid ‘Green Mountain’

* What it is: A broad-leafed evergreen with a compact, slow-growing, upright habit. It’s typically sheared into a 5- to 6-foot pyramid.

* Size: 5 to 6 feet tall, 3 to 4 feet around.

* Where to use: Flank doorways with a pair or use as an evergreen specimen in any foundation bed or mixed garden. Tolerates full sun to shade and also grows well in containers.

* Care: Water regularly the first full season to establish roots, then a weekly soaking is needed only in drought conditions. Work compost into the soil at planting. Fertilizer usually isn’t needed, but a scattering of a balanced, organic, granular fertilizer is optional early each spring. To keep neat and to the desired size, shear once or twice a year (end of winter and early summer). A new boxwood blight that’s working its way into the area is the main health threat.

* Great partner: Ring the base with hyacinths or dwarf daffodils for spring color, then plant summer annuals, such as petunias, vinca or dwarf angelonia. Variegated liriope or dark-leafed coralbells are good perennial partners.