Hi everyone. I'd really appreciate any help you all can offer me with the boxwoods in my front yard. Plants and I don't seem to get along - even boxwoods that seem to need very little attention, generally.
I'm located in Raleigh, North Carolina, and for about the past three years I've had trouble with a row of boxwoods in my front lawn. A small section of the bushes will die and turn brown suddenly, and the whole bush will be dead within a couple of weeks. This problem has been especially bad in one area of the row of bushes, where I've re-planted boxwoods several times in the past several years. I don't think that this is an insect infestation, since I've looked at the leaves closely and haven't found anything visible. I have noticed some strange fungus on the soil a couple of times in the past year. It looks like a brown pile of clumped dirt, but if I spray water onto it, a dry cloud of fine dust goes into the air. I don't know if this is related to the problem with the shrubs or not.
Below is a link to a YouTube video that shows the row of shrubs. If you have any advice for me about what might be causing this problem and what I can do about it I would be very grateful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKKjTKUHpG4
Thanks,
Matt
My neighbor's boxwood hedge dies off like that. They had a hedge specialist look at it, and he said it had a virus. It was some years ago, and I no longer remember the name of it.
I recommend that you call the nearest Extension Service office or a University, if there's one near you. The Extension Service is usually listed in the White Pages of the phone book. Ask them if they can look at samples of the sick shrubs for you, and exactly what you should provide as samples. You might want to ask them if they can run a soil test for you, as well. Soil is not homogenous all over a piece of land. It can vary quite dramatically within a short distance.
I recommend that you call the nearest Extension Service office or a University, if there's one near you. The Extension Service is usually listed in the White Pages of the phone book. Ask them if they can look at samples of the sick shrubs for you, and exactly what you should provide as samples. You might want to ask them if they can run a soil test for you, as well. Soil is not homogenous all over a piece of land. It can vary quite dramatically within a short distance.