VBox example: VBox vbox = new VBox(8); // spacing = 8 vbox.getChildren().addAll(new Button("Cut"), new Button("Copy"), new Button("Paste")); VBox will resize children (if resizable) to their preferred heights and uses its fillWidth property to determine whether to resize their widths to fill its own width or keep their widths to their preferred (fillWidth defaults to true). The alignment of the content is controlled by the alignment property, which defaults to Pos.TOP_LEFT. If a vbox is resized larger than its preferred height, by default it will keep children to their preferred heights, leaving the extra space unused. If an application wishes to have one or more children be allocated that extra space it may optionally set a vgrow constraint on the child. See "Optional Layout Constraints" for details. VBox lays out each managed child regardless of the child's visible property value; unmanaged children are ignored.