Show #35/7309. An Amazingly Beautiful Garden With A View

Boxwood Care

As we get closer to the home, the design becomes much more formal. Eric would like for Judy to talk about the plantings around the house. One of the biggest number of plantings is boxwood, the American boxwood. That is not something one would think of in a wild setting, but for some reason they do beautifully up in the mountains. A lot of people use them. They're easy to care for, or they were until there was a problem with the boxwood blight that struck within the last five years. It was really interesting to see the first people who had this problem were way down low then each year it kind of crept its way up. And did eventually hit Judy. A lot of people have taken their boxwoods out because it completely defoliates the plant, just decimates it then the plant dies. Judy wasn’t going to let this happen. These boxwoods are too important to her home. Brad Phillips, who tends her gardens, began a very rigorous spraying program, and so far, they are doing fine. Eric weighs in commenting boxwood is one of the iconic staples of the formal garden and it is heartwarming to know that there are things that we can do to battle boxwood blight. It will spread through rain splash from plant to plant to plant. That's why in time, it's navigated throughout most of the east coast of the US. But it can be treated with fungicide. An important thing to remember is to rotate the fungicides that you're using because the fungus immunity mutates quickly. It will develop an immunity to whichever fungicide or a tolerance to it, so it's important to trick it from time to time with something different.