Boxwood Blight – Replace With These Freeze Tolerant Shrubs

Joey Lenderman:

Hey, I’m Joey from Enchanted Gardens.

Today we’re going to talk about some problems that folks have been having with boxwoods. This is a Japanese boxwood. There are thousands and thousands around the Houston area. In the recent years, there’s been a decline in the boxwoods. It’s called boxwood blight, where they’ll slowly start dying off in parts. The blight is something that at this point is not really curable, and the problem exists in the soil, even if you try to replace it with a new boxwood. So I would not recommend going back with boxwoods if you have the blight in your yard.

A lot of folks are going with one of these two options. This is a micron holly, which we’ll get about the same size as a boxwood. They’re in a totally different family, so they’re not going to have a problem with the blight like the boxwood does. And they’re super cold tolerant, super heat tolerant once they’re established, so you don’t have to worry about freezes or droughts. If you wanted a little bit taller version, this is a dwarf yaupon holly. This one will get a little bit taller. This one’s going to get maybe 30, 36 inches tall long-term. But same deal, different family. So it’s not going to have a problem with the boxwood blight if you’ve had that in your yard.