The Story Continues

The Saunders Family

Growing up a Saunders predisposes you to have a certain affection towards boxwood. In our previous post we told the story of Paul Saunders and how he turned his passion for boxwood cultivation into a successful family business. Saunders Brothers Nursery began growing boxwood over 70 years ago and this was just the beginning. As the business has transitioned to a new generation of leadership, Paul’s sons, Robert, Bennett, Tom, and Jim reflect on their memories from sticking boxwood cuttings to earn an extra penny, to the discovery of Boxwood Blight in the United States and, to the creation of the NewGen™ program.

From an early age, the sons participated in every part of boxwood production around the farm. Bennett Saunders, General Manager of Saunders Genetics, remembers, “As kids, we would get paid a penny apiece for each boxwood cutting we stripped and stuck. This is how we would earn our extra spending money.” As the boys grew, they continued to play an essential part in the daily farm responsibilities. “I remember spending most weekday evenings at the nursery loading trucks with boxwood from March to May,” recalls Bennett. “At the time, boxwood were about 40% of the plants we grew.”

Boxwood Decline affecting English boxwood in a landscape

One of the first setbacks in boxwood production came about in the 1970s with the advent of Boxwood Decline. Up until this point, most of the boxwood market was made up of English boxwood (Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’). As Boxwood Decline became more prevalent, the company began to move towards a wider selection of boxwood cultivars that were more resistant to the disease. Robert Saunders, General Manager of Saunders Brothers remembers, “In the spring of either 1981 or 1982, I was in high school and I got a note from the principal’s office saying I needed to call home. I called and my dad explained that he wanted me to come home to see an experiment he was doing. He was planting in an area just outside the yard at our house, a test garden of new varieties of boxwood. At that time, we grew only English and American boxwood, but my dad thought we should try some new ones.” Robert was dumbfounded for two reasons, “Number one, I hated plants, so I did not want to have anything to do with it. Number two, why did we need new varieties of boxwood? Little did I know I would end up working in the middle of it. From those trials, an evolution of perspective began and, we soon found Green Beauty, Green Velvet, Green Mountain and many other varieties. Most importantly it taught us about life beyond our small boxwood world.”

The exploration into new varieties of boxwood began to shed light on another lurking boxwood pest. “There was a field planting of Buxus sempervirens ‘Elizabeth Inglis’ that had just been eaten up with Boxwood Leafminer,” Bennett remembers. “It had never been sprayed and was just covered in blistered leaves.” Deciding this might be something worth exploring, they planted some other varieties near the host plant to see if different cultivars showed any natural resistance to the pest. Early observations showed that there was some hope for these different cultivars which encouraged Saunders to pursue more formal research.

Boxwood Leafminer larvae causing the boxwood leaves to swell and blister.

Dissecting boxwood leaves to count larvae.

In the early 2000s, Boxwood Leafminer incidences started to become more prevalent, coinciding with a general desire to reduce the use of pesticides, particularly the neonicotinoids. Saunders Brothers recruited retired nematologist Bob Dunn from the University of Florida to help them set up a replicated plot to collect data. They began by planting a test block where host plants infected with Leafminer were planted alongside many different cultivars of boxwood. Since the fall of 2006, thousands of leaf samples from the test area have been collected. Each leaf was dissected, and larvae were counted. The collection of this data over a decade showed a strong variation of cultivars’ natural resistance to Leafminer. This in turn meant a reduction in the use of pesticides and an increase in the value of boxwood in today’s gardens.

Bob Dunn, retired nematologist, working on Boxwood Leafminer research.

Boxwood Blight affecting a field nursery.

Then, in the fall of 2011, Bennett recalls that, “we began to hear horror stories about a disease called Boxwood Blight which was devastating boxwood nurseries in North Carolina and Connecticut. We called a meeting the Monday after Thanksgiving to decide what to do. We decided we needed to go to Europe before the MANTS show to have more information to better answer customers’ questions. We immediately bought tickets for a team from Saunders to go to Europe the week before Christmas. My wife was not happy, but it was something we had to do.”

Researcher in Europe showing examples of Boxwood Blight.

Bennett Saunders loading a truck with sample plants for NCSU trials.

Since the disease had been prevalent in Europe since the mid-1990s, members of the Saunders team spent time in Belgium and the United Kingdom to learn tactics to combat it. European researchers mentioned that they had seen that genetic tolerance for the disease varied among boxwood species. Saunders realized that trials could be performed, similar to the Leafminer trials, to discern genetic tolerance. In 2012, Saunders Brothers teamed up with Kelly Ivors at North Carolina State University to begin trialing different boxwood species and cultivars. Thanks to years of collection, many different boxwood cultivars existed at the nursery in Virginia, so Saunders sent samples of these varieties to be part of the trials. This research proved to be so insightful that after the research was completed at NCSU in 2015, Saunders continued the trials privately. It was clear this was a challenge that could be overcome.

Kelly Ivors (middle) and team at NCSU.

NewGen Independence® in field trials.

 Since learning about the disease, enormous resources have been dedicated to learning about Boxwood Blight. Saunders Brothers has donated thousands of plants, given input into multiple research projects, and made every attempt to better educate themselves and the growing community about this disease. Teams have traveled domestically and internationally to better understand a disease that many once thought would be the end of boxwood. Working with researchers from state and federal agencies, as well as international groups, the continued message was apparent that through a greater understanding of the disease, the battle with Boxwood Blight will be won with tolerant varieties and best management practices.

NewGen Freedom® in production.

Holding on to that message of hope, and after years of trialing, certain cultivars continued to outperform many of the popular varieties on the market. Two of those cultivars were chosen because they stood out from the rest. “These plants showed up and made us smile and think ‘We’ve really got something here’ that we can share with the industry,” remembers Robert. The discovery of these beautiful plants characterized by their superior resistance to Boxwood Leafminer, high tolerance of Boxwood Blight, and WOW factor in the landscape led to the creation of the NewGen™ brand. You can read more about that story here.

From one 13-year-old boy’s love of a charming little evergreen grew a family business dedicated to innovation and looking for solutions. Saunders Genetics, LLC was created to become a resource for all boxwood enthusiasts for generations to come. With over 70 years’ of experience and a passion for boxwood, they are excited to introduce a new generation of boxwood to the industry.

Paul Saunders and his wife, Tatum, at their home.

Where the Story Begins

Young Paul with his mother Mildred Saunders.

Paul and Mildred looking at some Boxwood in the garden.

On a bright April day in 1947, 13-year-old Paul Saunders joined his mother Mildred as she pruned the English boxwood hedges around the front porch of their home.  Even though baseball was Paul’s favorite pastime, he turned down a game with his friends playing in a nearby cow pasture to shadow his mother, an enthusiastic gardener and passionate member of the Nelson County Garden Club.  Paul had learned how to propagate shrubs from his science teacher and local nurseryman, Mr. Atto.  Paul gathered 77 cuttings as his mother snipped, and planted them in a nearby patch on the northern side of an eroded hill, a perfect spot with a thicket of pines overhead for shade, and a spring close by for water.

Paul enlisted the help of his friend “Boochie” White to become his partner in the venture.  Boochie was responsible for most of the watering because he lived close to the plants.  Of those 77 cuttings, 25 rooted and became the genesis of the Saunders family’s commercially-grown boxwood nursery.

The boxwood patch next to the hen house.

The following July Paul bought out Boochie’s interest for $1.00 and moved the fledgling nursery to a new location that offered richer soil and a water spigot.  Buoyed with the success of the first planting, he then planted 1,000 cuttings of both English and American boxwood.  “I could water them daily with a water hose from the spigot at the hen house,” Paul reflected.  “My little boxwood nursery became part of my 4-H Home Grounds Beautification project.  I stuck more cuttings in rooting beds near an old woodpile.  John Whitehead, our County Farm Agent, encouraged me as the nursery grew.”  Paul remembers many people asking him, “What are you going to do with all those boxwood?”  “I don’t know,” he replied, and went on planting.

A young Robert, John, and Bennett Saunders checking the boxwood cuttings.

A young Tatum working in the nursery.

Year after year, Paul continued to plant more boxwood and as the nursery grew, so did the family.  Paul met his wife Tatum in 1955 in Franklin County at a 4-H party.  He recalls that on one of their early dates, she helped him strip boxwood cuttings to prepare for planting.  They married and eventually welcomed seven sons to their family.  The boys (four of whom run the Saunders Brothers nursery today) all have stories of what it was like to grow up on the farm.  “If you ate at the dinner table at night, you were expected to be at work the next day at 8 A.M., all days except Sunday,” reflects Bennett Saunders.  “No exceptions, even for friends of the family.”

Paul with sons Massie and Tom.

John and Sam Saunders walking through the nursery in the snow.

Plants were first marketed locally, but as the nursery grew, boxwood began to be shipped all over Virginia.  One day in 1962, Paul received a phone call from the National Park Service, asking to buy 1,500 boxwood.  Paul asked where the plants were going, but he was told their destination was confidential.  Eventually the word got out that the boxwood were headed to the White House.  President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline had recently returned from an international trip where they were inspired by the formal European gardens, and wanted to renovate the White House Rose Garden.  The 1,500 boxwood used in the renovation can still be seen from the windows of the Oval Office today.

Boxwood being loaded to go to The White House

Saunders Boxwood being planted in the Rose Garden

The nursery continued to expand to the farm’s fertile river bottoms and hillsides.  All was well and sights were set on a bright future until a warm August night in 1969 when Mother Nature threw a monkey wrench in the plan.  In less than five hours, through the middle of the night, Hurricane Camille dumped over 20 inches of rain on the mountains of Nelson County, Virginia.  The devastation and loss of life in the county were horrendous (1% of the population perished).  Mudslides, flooding, and avalanches of debris covered the area.  The raging Tye River destroyed nearly 10 acres of Saunders plants and land.  Although the damage was devastating, a few boxwood that were planted on higher ground, survived.  This nucleus gave birth to a container nursery at Tye Brook Farm.

Paul walking through a crop of boxwood.

In the late 60s and 70s boxwood were moved down to the packing shed in peach bins, where they were then loaded on to trucks.

Although boxwood had been used as a common landscape plant for many years, only two varieties, English and American, were commonly used in landscapes.  That changed in the 1970s as boxwood came to face more and more disease problems.  As a result, Paul proceeded to look at different varieties for a solution.  “We began to see these problems and started searching for other strains that we could substitute.  I talked to people all over the boxwood-growing areas, asking their advice as to their choices of the best varieties,” recalled Paul.  “There was no real consensus; what was doing well in one area was not necessarily doing well in another area.  In order to find out which variety was best suited in a particular area, we established evaluation sites from Connecticut to Chicago, south to Alabama and Georgia, and many areas in between, donating thousands of boxwood to the sites to get the project started.” Working with many public and private gardens, universities, and researchers, the National Boxwood Trials were born.  Over 60 participants reported their observations of a variety of cultivars in two basic categories, plant attractiveness and grower friendliness.  The results were published annually, with the final report being published in 2011. Paul describes the Boxwood Trials as one of his proudest accomplishments. 

Three generations in the field learning about boxwood. Paul and his grandsons, Tye and Marshall, are joined by their father Bennett, his wife Lynn and Paul’s wife Tatum.

From one 13 year-old boy’s love of a charming little evergreen, grew a family business dedicated to innovation. The Saunders family continues to do research through Saunders Genetics, LLC. to find the best boxwood to flourish in each of a wide diversity of micro-environments.

Paul with one of his favorite boxwood cultivars.