Brief History of Boxerwood

Robert S. Munger, MD was almost single handedly responsible for the creation and development of Boxerwood.   He believed in giving plants a good start in life and setting them free to develop, mature, age, die and decay with little human intervention. In 1952 Dr. Munger and Elizabeth Evans Munger built their home in this slightly overgrown pasture and raised three children here. At first, to provide shade for their home, Dr. Munger began to landscape; in the beginning, he was simply a collector. He claimed to be unaware of the landscape and its design. His interest rested mainly among Dwarf Conifers, Dogwoods, Rhododendrons and Azaleas, Magnolias and Japanese Maples, but many others plants caught his interest.

One day while Dr. Munger was installing some boxwoods, a friend noticed the fourteen boxer dogs lying about. The friend joked, “Bob, you should name your garden ‘Boxerwood.’ Bob said he sat bolt up right in bed that night and thought, “Oh, my god. I bet there is a garden happening here.” At that point Dr. Munger began to study horticulture and to exercise much more intention in his garden.

In 1977, Dr. Munger retired from his medical practice as a General Practitioner to become his own full-time gardener. In 1984, he had help from Karen "KB" Bailey, who became Boxerwood's Gardening Steward after the BEA was founded years later.  In over 30 years of collecting, Dr. Munger guessed that he had planted somewhere between 12,000 - 13,000 trees and shrubs. He suggested that he had probably lost about half to wrong tree - wrong place, disease, infestation, short life expectancy, and any other reason a tree might not make it. “And yet, everything considered, what more healthy philosophy can gardeners - and for that matter the leaders of the world and the four or five billion others of this world - have than that of Martin Luther who said, ‘tho he knew that tomorrow the world were to go down, he would still plant his apple tree today.’”

His passion for his garden continued to grow until his death in 1988. Shortly after Dr. Munter's death, an inventory revealed that over 7,000 trees and shrubs were attributable to him. Some 2,500 were labeled cultivars. Today, we probably still have over 7,000 trees and shrubs, but nature has done more of the planting. At this point we have just over 1,300 cultivars of Dr. Munger’s old friends.

In 1996, Hunter Mohring and KB bought a portion of the land and began exploring ways to save the garden and develop its full potential for the surrounding community. Boxerwood opened to the public in April, 1997. Educational programs began the following fall. The nonprofit Boxerwood Education Association was formed in 2000. Hunter became our first Executive Steward; KB, our Garden Steward (always filling Boxerwood with beauty and whimsy for all to enjoy); and Mollie Messimer, our first Education Steward. 

Betty Munger lived in her home until 1992 at which time she moved to State College, Pennsylvania.  She died in 2008.  Her ashes along with those of Dr. Munger and several family members are buried in the crypt, underneath the stand occupied by Betty Branch’s statue, Blithe Spirit.  Their names and the dates of their lives are engraved on the nearby stone bench along with one of Dr. Munger’s favorite quotes, WHAT THOU LOVEST WELL REMAINS

Just as the garden changes, so has Boxerwood.  Elise Sheffield became our Education Director in 2004 and Tony Russell, our Executive Director, in 2009.  Our education program has expanded to preschool to grade six, the Play Trail has opened, an after-school reading program has been initiated, special events have been added, and our web presence has grown with the additional guidance of Bonnie Bernstein, Hannah Klein, Jess Sullivan, and Sally Grunewald.

You can read Hunter's history of our education program and the Celebration honoring her retirement.  For more insight about the garden, read KB's State of the Garden and How it got that Way.