The blight may well have been elsewhere in Georgia already. A Virginia nursery was the likely source of infected plants that led to that first known Georgia case in Buckhead in July 2014, on a private property that the experts won’t publicly identify for privacy reasons. cases were found in Connecticut and North Carolina nurseries. An American infection was just a matter of time, and in 2011, the first U.S. ![]() This pretty picture started going bad with the original discovery of boxwood blight in the United Kingdom in the 1990s. So it’s very hard to contemplate having a holly instead.” The blight arrives It’s been tied in people’s minds and their sensibilities to what a gorgeous Southern garden looks like. “It’s been used for hundreds of years here. It’s the aristocrat of the Southern garden,” said Hastings, adding that’s why homeowners are willing to battle the blight instead of just getting replacement plants. And on your purse-strings, too - for nurseries and landscapers, “It’s a huge economic impact.” “In the South… it’s a plant that tugs on your heart,” says Williams-Woodward. The English and American varieties are wildly popular cornerstones of the traditional Southern aristocratic garden. It also takes well to being shaped with trimmers and is hugely popular for rectangular hedges - which is how the plant got the “box” name. In tree form, it makes for stately, pillar-like entrance ornaments. Photo credit: Rob Knightīoxwood ( Buxus sempervirens) is a type of small-leafed, evergreen plant native to Asia that for centuries has been popular nearly worldwide as an ornamental. The infection causes leaves to discolor and die, and eventually leaves bare spots in infected boxwoods. Boxwood blight has infected only a few of the boxwoods in front of this home in the Paces neighborhood of Buckhead in March 2022. The future she sees taking shape - much like the famously sculpture-friendly boxwood itself - is one where improved practices, disease-resistant breeds and a shift to other types of landscape plants will contain the blight. She says that “we’re still finding out things about this disease.” Jean Williams-Woodward is a University of Georgia Extension plant pathologist who was on the team that first identified the blight on boxwoods on that Buckhead property back in 2014. It’s the aristocrat of the Southern garden.” Chris Hastings, owner, Arbormedics “And really we’re still trying to figure out, what are those key moments? Because it’s not always as clear as you would expect.” “But over all that time… it comes in waves,” he says, noting a particular blight-battling hint in its link to rainfall and moisture. ![]() However, Hastings adds, it also has not wiped out the plants as was originally feared. Is it now commonplace on almost every street in Buckhead? Yes.” He summed up the current state of affairs: “Is it bad? Yes. Now boxwood blight has spread to devastate historic gardens and local landscapes across the country, while science is starting to catch up to the tricks of the fungal infection behind it.Ĭhris Hastings, owner of the Chamblee-based tree care firm Arbormedics, has been battling the blight in Buckhead gardens from Day One. Nearly eight years have passed since an incurable killer of a beloved garden plant was first found in Georgia, lurking in a Buckhead lawn.
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