Deer and rabbit resistant and no major disease or insect issues. They will tolerate flooding, salts, clay, and even more deep shade if growing conditions are met.
#GEMBOX INKBERRY FULL#
Ink b erries do best in moist acidic soils in full sun to part shade. Shrubs will put on small, inconspicuous white flowers in the spring before developing jet-black tiny fruits that are loved by birds. Ink b erries are covered in tiny, oval, glossy green leaves that last well into winter. This glossy evergreen shrub does well in poor growing conditions making it a great asset for difficult sites. And yews can be used in much the same way as boxwood.Uses: Massing, naturalizing, hedge, borders These hollies have small leaves and take well to pruning, but unlike boxwood they can’t be pushed into part shade situations. It is smaller in size, with a compact, rounded overall form. It is similar in appearance to a boxwood, making it a nice alternative in some areas. Proven Winners is offering two good boxwood alternatives this year: Strongbox and Gembox inkberry holly ( Ilex glabra). Gem Box Inkberry Holly General Information. It should be on the market in wide release in 2020.īoxwood alternatives are also being developed. NewGen boxwood was announced at plant shows in late 2018 and claims to be completely resistant to boxwood blight. Plant breeders are working hard to address the blight issue as well. That will change this year.īut I won’t treat with the boxwoods I have with fungicides unless I find evidence of blight somewhere.
I will also readily admit to being terrible about disinfecting my tools and cleaning up after pruning. I know this probably mean I’ll pay even more, and boxwood is already pretty expensive. If they don’t know what that is, I’m walking away. Smaller independent garden centers are already my preferred retailers but especially for boxwood I will only shop at garden centers (no big box stores) that have boxwood blight compliance agreements. I’m not going to stop buying boxwood, but I’m changing the way I buy it. But if you’re like me, with some boxwoods in your garden but not a giant hedge that your garden would be lost without, you’re probably just trying to familiarize yourself with the disease and looking at smaller changes.
If you have boxwood blight, most of this is probably old news to you. It’s also important to disinfect your pruning tools with a weak bleach solution before moving to other plants. Keep composted clippings away from other plants and if there’s any worry about infection, but or throw clippings away rather than composting. Linda Vader from Potager Blog, who has beautiful boxwoods in her garden and gives excellent pruning tips on her Instagram account, uses a cheap vinyl shower curtain spread out under a plant to collect clippings. When you do buy boxwood, it’s advised that you keep the plants separated from existing boxwood in your garden for a month to keep an eye out for symptoms.Ĭlean up carefully when pruning boxwood, making sure to pick up leaf litter. Some large gardens with established boxwood hedges do not bring new boxwood on the property, but if you’re not ready to put a moratorium on your boxwood buying, then you have to be really careful about where you shop.īuy only from reputable nurseries with a boxwood blight compliance agreement. The best way to avoid boxwood blight is to avoid bringing it into your garden. I would be sad to lose them and even sadder to have to eliminate it from my plant palette. I don’t have miles of boxwood hedges in my garden, but it’s a plant I quite like and those I do have offer important structure in my garden. And that means it’s officially my concern now. We’ve been warned about it here for awhile and last July it was positively identified in a Wisconsin nursery. The disease has been a problem across the pond for many years and recently has taken out beautiful old boxwood hedges in some of my favorite television gardens.Īnd I knew there was a good chance it would soon be my problem. –TIGīecause I watch a lot of British gardening television programming, I’ve been thinking about boxwood blight for a long time. Be vigilant, be careful where you buy your boxwoods from and look for blight-resistant varieties. Good for small hedge or container specimen. Maintains good branching right to the ground and is deer resistant.
#GEMBOX INKBERRY UPDATE#
At this time I have not found signs of the fungus on other boxwoods in my yard and I certainly hope I won’t have to come back and update this post to say something different. Lustrous, diminutive dark evergreen foliage that looks more like a boxwood. The five boxwoods in the first photo of this post are infected and will be removed. UPDATE, April 2021: I’m sad to report that boxwood blight has been positively identified via plant samples I sent to the plant disease diagnostic lab in my garden.
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