Alternative to Buxus (box hedging)?

[Becky]

I posted late last year about the problems we've been having with buxus in our garden - the short story is that we got box blight and there doesn't seem to be anything that will get rid of it permanently, so we are looking for alternatives.

We moved into the house in 2012 and there is a lot of box hedging, and most of it is fine. The affected area seems to be confined to the area around the pond, so rather than replace it with more buxus we've been looking at alternatives which look like buxus.

Our current favourite is Ilex Crenata - does anyone here have any experience with it?

http://www.wellandvaleplantsdirect.co.uk/ilex-crenata/ilex-crenata-dark-green-p9

 

[Becky]

We went for the Ilex Crenata in the end, and Ian is putting it in as I type. So far so good, it looks very similar to Buxus and it's meant to be quicker growing... which is a good and a bad thing, because although the plants should reach a good size more quickly (they are currently tiny) it might mean we need to trim them more regularly.