First, I must credit lectures I attended last fall given by Mahfuz Rahman, the Plant Pathology Extension Specialist, West Virginia. Factual discussions with Sheryl Bergen Jarvis ANR Program Asst for WVU-Monongalia County Extension, and last but not least discussions with Todd Mullens, BA in Horticultural from WVU, and 23 years of experience managing Rich Farms nursery, plus 10 prior to then, totaling 33 years in the field.  

There will be a Wisdom written when I feel I have some and at that time I will quote all their facts and studies. Thanks to all of them for their patience with my endless questions. Those of you who know me know I can be a pain in peoples butts sometimes and with them I definitely was.

I’m always unsure why anyone wants my opinion, but it is my newsletter and it's always been worth what you pay for it. So here goes:

First, while this is all about doom and gloom for the boxwoods in our landscapes because we just like their shape, the fact deer don’t eat them, and the fact that up until now, they were indestructible in the landscape; let's not give up. Understand that the fact that we all love those facts is why we have planted too many, in too many gardens, all over Morgantown. The fact that we like their round and columnar geometric shapes is why we prune them wrong with shears instead of as the videos show with hand clippers and to the 3-year wood level which creates a look totally not like we want in the landscape. With this knowledge, a solid BA in history, and 47 years making the boxwood problem worse every business day and not seeing it, here are my 2024 recommendations:

Most importantly let's not add any new boxwoods to the landscape as replacements when shrubs do die. Sorry, Todd, but just a year or two while this gets sorted out. It's West Virginia and looking like a few teeth are missing like me can be quaint.

When your boxwoods are pruned make sure they are not wet, and that the pruner at least disinfects between last yard and yours but even better if periodically.  Pruning wet is agreed as the most normal way the blight was passed.

We are also seeing tons of spider mite damage and if you have that, treat your boxwoods. Most likely you will have to do this yourself because so far, I haven’t found someone to recommend since I aged out of shrub and tree care. Contact me individually and I will teach you how to do it. If that’s a big no, spider mites generally just make them look bad but they can take it. Watch for updates because I am interviewing, frantically looking for that company that I can recommend.

Let's give them some love. Fertilize them, if it’s hot and dry, water them, there will be the how in these newsletters on watering.  Fertilizing just follow the label of your choice. I believe that will help significantly because:

Despite the doomsday approach to this, I think a lot of this is due to the 2022 Christmas freeze.  Todd Mullen, noted above from Rich Farms, changed my total view of the disaster by pointing out the obvious that had missed me.Yes, that 10-degree below zero plunge froze a bunch of boxwood leaves as mentioned last spring, but having 28 years of hardware, I should have known that there was pipe damage, too, in the stems of the plant. All winter pipes freeze, swell, and blow up when pressure is applied. Why should boxwoods be any different?

Boxwoods like all plants have pipes attaching the roots to the canopy and if those stems are damaged, they will work fine until the temperatures go up and they are really pumping. This can explain the summer and fall damage so until that is disproven, I don’t want to recommend tearing out plants.

I’m not saying that the samples sent to Dr Radman didn’t have Volutella blight, I’m just saying he didn’t test yours and even if it's in your shrubs, perhaps when they get over the bad winter freeze of 2022, which in the past has shown can take some years, they will be able to fight it like they did before and we can go back to abusing the shrub like we all like to do and not noticing it.  Yes, the good life?

Folks, I’m apologizing for this newsletter. This is an incredibly important subject to homeowners in the Morgantown area and it's showing potential to change our plant pallet for a long time. I have learned that most of my readers have scattered all over the country and for whatever reason see my meanderings a Morgantown memory.  It's great to be mature, isn’t it? To all of you, I will do better in the future, put some fresh batteries in your flashlights.