Westringia Ozbreed Aussie Box

The growing notes on this page come from the plant sheet of the company that markets it. The sheet lists Aussie Box as tolerant of frost and drought, without a grade or a figure. It suits most soil types and prefers free-draining soils, in full sun to light shade; the sheet says to avoid wet feet or depressed planting areas. The planting range it gives is New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and south-east Queensland, not northern Queensland, with one regional note: in Queensland and northern New South Wales the plant can grow up to half as large again in good free-draining soils, and pruning is recommended there.

The sheet's general pruning note is to leave the plant unpruned in its tidy natural shape or to prune to shape one to three times a year after flowering, more often for a tidier shape. Its care notes are water as required for eight to thirteen weeks until established, a well mulched garden with chunky mulch recommended, and slow-release fertiliser in spring if required. No reference read for this page gives a pest or disease, a growth rate, a leaf description or a frost figure in degrees, and the sheet names no parent for the hybrid.

The sheet lists mass plantings, containers, borders and hedges as its uses. Its planting density is two to four plants per square metre and one and a half to three per linear metre, the lower density where the plant can grow larger; the centres on this page are worked from the middle of those densities, about 0.45 m along a hedge and 0.6 m in a block. The same company sells Naringa for medium to tall hedges and Blue Gem as a feature plant and for mass plantings. HortOS lists Grey Box as a Westringia fruticosa, and the same company's sheet for that plant calls it a drought tolerant alternative to English box. No HortOS guide lists Aussie Box by name.

Aussie Box is the name the plant is sold under, listed as Ozbreed Aussie Box. The HortOS listing carries the code WES08 in brackets beside it, so check which form a grower lists before comparing prices. The table above shows the sizes growers list. For what to check in the pot, roots, pests and hardening off, see the HortOS guide on nursery plant quality. Stock crossing a state border travels under the state and territory biosecurity rules on moving plants and soil.