Fresh plants add that special touch to any home. Not everyone has a garden to plant flowers, shrubs, and more directly into beds, but balconies and terraces can also be beautifully decorated with potted plants. This way, a bit of garden joy can be brought into the city to help make urban areas more green. Evergreen potted plants provide beautiful decoration for balconies, terraces, or as a welcoming feature at the entrance all year round. Placed in a stylish container or uniquely decorated, they become true eye-catchers. Especially stunning is the container planting with the popular boxwood alternative Bloombux.
With its green, dense foliage that resembles boxwood, Bloombux provides year-round beauty. In May and June, it’s covered by a true sea of blossoms: blooms up to eight centimetres in diameter appear in delicate pink or vibrant magenta, creating a striking visual impact in any container. Another advantage: The dwarf rhododendron Bloombux looks like boxwood but has all the positive qualities of a rhododendron, making it the perfect evergreen alternative.
Resistant to common garden pests
Bloombux scombines all the desirable traits of Buxus (Boxwood) with several added advantages—most notably, complete immunity from the box tree moth and therefore no reporting requirements. Thanks to its unique breeding, it’s resistant to all these pests. While Bloombux closely resembles classic boxwood, it is actually a specially bred rhododendron. It also offers an additional feature: Unlike boxwood, the evergreen Bloombux produces abundant blooms in pink or magenta from May to June. Additional benefits include winter hardiness, easy care, site tolerance, and a high tolerance for pruning. The Rhododendron micranthum is also versatile in terms of use, as it can be planted as a low hedge, a striking standalone in garden beds, or as an eye-catching feature in containers.
For gardeners seeking a boxwood alternative free from the dreaded box tree moth, the blooming Bloombux is the perfect choice.
How to plant Bloombux in a container
It doesn’t take much to get this versatile plant ready for container planting. All you need is a pot, a drill (if needed), a small shovel, some clay pebbles and soil, a small clay shard, and possibly a mat to keep the soil contained. Before filling the pot, a small hole should be drilled in the centre if there’s no drainage hole already. This allows excess water to drain, preventing root rot and protecting against mould. To ensure not too much water or soil washes out and to allow the plant to absorb what it needs, place a clay shard over the hole with the curved side facing up. A layer of clay pebbles or gravel, about a quarter of the pot, serves as a drainage layer, protecting the plant from waterlogging. Then, add some potting soil.
Once these preparations are complete, it’s time to plant the Bloombux. Remove it from its nursery pot and place it in the container. Add more soil if needed, and for extra greenery, consider adding companion plants. Trailing plants like incense plant or elf flower, Dichondra, or silver rain work particularly well, creating a harmonious look that lets the Bloombux shine. To finish, add a handful of horn shavings as organic fertilizer. A little water rounds off the planting process. Thanks to its winter hardiness down to -24 °C, this boxwood alternative can stay outside in its pot year-round. It thrives best in a sunny or partially shaded spot.
