diff --git a/doc/source/release.rst b/doc/source/release.rst
index b5a11091779ec..ab89cbfe2929b 100644
--- a/doc/source/release.rst
+++ b/doc/source/release.rst
@@ -475,6 +475,7 @@ Bug Fixes
   caused possible color/class mismatch (:issue:`6956`)
 - Bug in ``radviz`` and ``andrews_curves`` where multiple values of 'color'
   were being passed to plotting method (:issue:`6956`)
+- Bug in ``DataFrame.boxplot`` where it failed to use the axis passed as the ``ax`` argument (:issue:`3578`)
 
 pandas 0.13.1
 -------------
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_graphics.py b/pandas/tests/test_graphics.py
index e3f49e14400d1..ca17e74d5eb07 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_graphics.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_graphics.py
@@ -1083,6 +1083,25 @@ def test_boxplot(self):
         df['X'] = Series(['A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'B', 'B', 'B', 'B', 'B'])
         _check_plot_works(df.boxplot, by='X')
 
+        # When ax is supplied, existing axes should be used:
+        import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
+        fig, ax = plt.subplots()
+        axes = df.boxplot('Col1', by='X', ax=ax)
+        self.assertIs(ax.get_axes(), axes)
+
+        # Multiple columns with an ax argument is not supported
+        fig, ax = plt.subplots()
+        self.assertRaisesRegexp(
+            ValueError, 'existing axis', df.boxplot,
+            column=['Col1', 'Col2'], by='X', ax=ax
+        )
+
+        # When by is None, check that all relevant lines are present in the dict
+        fig, ax = plt.subplots()
+        d = df.boxplot(ax=ax)
+        lines = list(itertools.chain.from_iterable(d.values()))
+        self.assertEqual(len(ax.get_lines()), len(lines))
+
     @slow
     def test_kde(self):
         _skip_if_no_scipy()
diff --git a/pandas/tools/plotting.py b/pandas/tools/plotting.py
index b11d71f48baf2..33f6d4464bc43 100644
--- a/pandas/tools/plotting.py
+++ b/pandas/tools/plotting.py
@@ -2760,10 +2760,16 @@ def _grouped_plot_by_column(plotf, data, columns=None, by=None,
         columns = data._get_numeric_data().columns - by
     ngroups = len(columns)
 
-    nrows, ncols = _get_layout(ngroups)
-    fig, axes = _subplots(nrows=nrows, ncols=ncols,
-                          sharex=True, sharey=True,
-                          figsize=figsize, ax=ax)
+    if ax is None:
+        nrows, ncols = _get_layout(ngroups)
+        fig, axes = _subplots(nrows=nrows, ncols=ncols,
+                              sharex=True, sharey=True,
+                              figsize=figsize, ax=ax)
+    else:
+        if ngroups > 1:
+            raise ValueError("Using an existing axis is not supported when plotting multiple columns.")
+        fig = ax.get_figure()
+        axes = ax.get_axes()
 
     if isinstance(axes, plt.Axes):
         ravel_axes = [axes]