Boxwood Blight Insight Group
Boxwood Gardening at Home
Learn more about how to diagnose if your boxwood plants have been affected
Boxwood Blight Insight Group (BBIG) is a team of scientists working together on an USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture – Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) project, in partnership with stakeholders and international collaborators. This transdisciplinary team and its partners aim to safeguard boxwood—the nation’s #1 evergreen ornamental shrub crop—from blight disease, thus saving an iconic plant featured in American landscapes since 1653.
Boxwood blight was first reported from the United Kingdom and New Zealand in the 1990s. The disease has since devastated boxwood production and gardens in Europe, western Asian, and North America. The first epidemics of this destructive disease in the United States were reported from North Carolina and Connecticut, followed by Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Virginia in 2011. As of September 1, 2020, this disease has spread via contaminated nursery stocks to twenty-two other states plus the District of Columbia, leading to tremendous economic losses and negative social impacts. The affected states are mostly situated along the East and West Coasts as well as the shorelines of the Great Lakes; they account for 95% of the U.S. boxwood production according to the 2014 National Agricultural Statistical Service.
Who We Are
Project Vision
Boxwood blight, although on the rise in the U.S. over the past 10 years, can still be mitigated. This iconic evergreen ornamental shrub and cornerstone landscape plant can be saved if farmers and retailers are enabled to produce and sell only blight-free plant stocks and landscapers to practice strict sanitation between job sites, while consumers and homeowners are empowered to identify and better manage the disease at sites of contamination.
Mission Statement
This project aims to provide everyone in the horticultural chain—from farmers to consumers and all citizens cherishing gardens and gardening—with the knowledge and tools needed to win the battle against boxwood blight through innovation, economic analysis and education. Accomplishing this goal will prevent further spread of the blight disease via nursery trade, allow better management of the disease at sites of contamination, and build resilience into boxwood production and gardening. All resultant innovations and technology integration will undergo vigorous cost/benefit analyses to ensure that each and every recommendation is economically viable, promoting the sustainability of boxwood production and gardening. New findings will be delivered to end users in a timely fashion for immediate application and benefit through the BBIG Newsletter, an online knowledge center, and other educational programming. For the broadest reach. Technology transfer will be conducted in collaboration with AmericanHort, the American Boxwood Society (ABS), the National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN), the National Plant Board (NPB), and other national and local institutions.
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