Boxwood typically blooms in February and March in central Virginia. The dormant flowers appear generally globular (Figure 1) but are actually flower clusters composed of a single female (pistillate) flower tightly surrounded by as many as six male (staminate) flowers. They are arranged along with shoots as axillary clusters or at the shoot tip as terminal clusters.
With warming temperatures in late winter, swelling buds signal the onset of flowering. The female flower has 4 to 7 or more sepals at its base and a single three-celled ovary topped with three short styles with two-lobed stigmas (Figure 2). The ovary has three locules, each with two ovules. Each ovule is capable of developing into a seed, potentially yielding six seeds per flower. The male flowers have four sepals arranged as two opposite pairs and four stamens, each opposing a sepal, composed of a thick filament topped by a two-celled anther.
