I am asking this for a friend. I have no experience with boxwoods. Here is her question. If anyone has answers, I will pass them on to her. We are zone 5a.

- I have a small boxwood bush (2') I planted last summer/fall. It is trimmed in a cone shape. This early summer I noticed the top 1/3 was brown and it never changed all summer, except a little new growth on the bottom 2/3rds. Should I trim out the 'dead' area hoping it will fill in and when is the best time to do that? The other boxwoods are doing great!

Thanks!

She can always trim out dead wood whenever it appears. Since the bush is so small, I wouldn't do any other trimming yet. Normally the best time to trim is right before you expect new growth, and to get new growth, branching, to fill in she will need to trim lightly on the inside of the bush.

I'm going to bet, some of the upper branches got cut off when she cut it to a cone. No harm, it will grow back. I would trim all dead branches off, individually. Not lopp off whole top. Put a stake in middle, and train/tie some growing branches to stake, until desired height is achieved. Cut stake to desired height.
I would do it now. There evergreen, there still active in winter. They'll even grow a bit on sunny days.
👍
😎😎😎