I just moved to a new house and previous owners planted two box woods right under the front windows (it's a cape cod design house). They are sheered off into rectangular shapes and I hate the look. The rest of the front garden area is very casual, cottage style, which is my preference. Plus, I just really am not a fan of unnaturally shaped natural things. I want to cut these box woods down as far as I dare and let them rejuvenate. Currently they are 4 ft high, 6 ft long and about 2 to 2 1/2 feet deep. I love the scent (and to me they do not smell like cat pee!!) so I don't want to remove them. What is the most I can do to these box woods without killing them, and when. I know they will not look so great for a while, but that's ok.
Do you have a local botanist/arborist/hort/etc to tend to it? If not, I would say trim off some unnatural shaping and let it grow wild. No need to lop it off I don't think, wiki says it is slow growing, but then again I don't really know much about box wood and wiki doesn't say much either (could search the net more)! :) Don't know if it can re-grow or the kind of stress that would put on it. Trim it into a desirable shape that mimics natural (Perhaps you like Bonsai? They have some interesting shapes, I personally like cloud/etc style)?
I transplanted some large, mature boxwood shrubs several years ago. They were doing well in there new home but were damaged during a couple of severe winters and died back almost completely. I cut out all of the dead wood leaving roughly 20% of the original plant material. They have started to regrow (albiet slowly) and appear to be doing fine.
