Neighbor has boxwood blight, what to do?

[Anonymous]

Our next door neighbor has a lot of boxwoods in her front yard. One started looking iffy a few months ago, and now it’s clearly succumbed to blight. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the rest are infected.

We have a handful of boxwoods in our own front yard. (Planted about 5 years ago - I know, we should have planted native, but we did choose a variety that is considered resistant to blight). The closest are about 25 feet from the infected plant. This neighbor doesn’t take particularly good care of her lawn (moved into a house with beautiful landscaping and has pretty much neglected it, many perennials and shrubs have died).

Is it out of bounds for us to ask her to remove her blighted boxwood? I try to live and let live with neighbors’ yards, but I think she’s just clueless, and I don’t think she’ll remove it unless asked.

[Anonymous]

It would be rude to do this unless you are very close and visit one another often. Next time but box holly/inkberry. No blight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be rude to do this unless you are very close and visit one another often. Next time but box holly/inkberry. No blight.

Really? Even if I frame it as “hey, not sure if you know this, but I think your shrub has blight, it could infect the other several dozen boxwoods in your yard if you don’t remove it”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be rude to do this unless you are very close and visit one another often. Next time but box holly/inkberry. No blight.

Really? Even if I frame it as “hey, not sure if you know this, but I think your shrub has blight, it could infect the other several dozen boxwoods in your yard if you don’t remove it”?

Really. Super rude.

Maybe... you could say you are having a landscaper work on your yard, and offer to pay to have them removed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be rude to do this unless you are very close and visit one another often. Next time but box holly/inkberry. No blight.

Really? Even if I frame it as “hey, not sure if you know this, but I think your shrub has blight, it could infect the other several dozen boxwoods in your yard if you don’t remove it”?

NP. I think especially if you offer to help her dig it out to protect her other shrubs it wouldn’t seem rude. I wouldn’t be offended. I’d be glad someone was letting me know and offering a real solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be rude to do this unless you are very close and visit one another often. Next time but box holly/inkberry. No blight.

Really? Even if I frame it as “hey, not sure if you know this, but I think your shrub has blight, it could infect the other several dozen boxwoods in your yard if you don’t remove it”?

Really. Super rude.

Maybe... you could say you are having a landscaper work on your yard, and offer to pay to have them removed.

This just seems really passive aggressive to me.

[Anonymous]

Btw, there are multiple people here telling you it’s rude. Objective opinion and no judgment on you. I get that it’s annoying when neighbors ignore upkeep. My neighbors are killing their poor tree with a mulch volcano. It’s none of my business even though it bothers me and as a gardener I feel bad for the poor tree.

[Anonymous]

This is not rude at all. Your neighbor probably has no idea. We recently had a neighbor let us know that a couple of our trees are diseased. We got them treated. Had she not told us, we would have had no idea!

[Anonymous]

Are you sure it’s blight? It’s really not that common right now.

Mites, psyllid (particularly bad this year), and leaf miner are all MUCH more common. Leaf miner I believe are just starting to really show damage right now. And leaf miner can look a lot like blight.

If it is indeed blight, it needs to be ruled out to save the neighborhood’s boxwoods. I would be blunt about it.

[Anonymous]

I would feel comfortable mentioning it to them. I didn’t know that mine had it until landscaper, appointed it out. However, it can be addressed with oil spray, right! I wouldn’t move right away to boxwood removal.

[Anonymous]

Pointed it out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would feel comfortable mentioning it to them. I didn’t know that mine had it until landscaper, appointed it out. However, it can be addressed with oil spray, right! I wouldn’t move right away to boxwood removal.

If horticultural oil solve the problem it wasn’t blight.

[Anonymous]

Odd that multiple people think it’s rude to point out, and one would even offer to have a landscaper remove it!! People are so strange. Just be polite but direct. Say you’re not sure, if you think it might be something else. I would appreciate my neighbor telling me if they noticed something in my garden that I’d not noticed before.

[Anonymous]

The thing to do is to mind your own business. Good fences make good neighbors. Also, it's probably not boxwood blight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The thing to do is to mind your own business. Good fences make good neighbors. Also, it's probably not boxwood blight.

But good fences don’t stop boxwood blight from spreading, if indeed that’s what it is. But I agree it’s unlikely.