Re: boxwood question

The link Kitty found goes into the major diseases, but, as it points
out, many of the fungi seem to hit plants that are stressed, either
by poor drainage or getting too dry.

While box are tough guys who do their job year in - year out with
little fuss, they do hate two things....either really wet feet or
really dry ones.   I lost some really old Korean box to one of the
'yellows'...still have some of them left, not looking great, but
think our 5 year drought did them in:-(  B. sempervirens is tougher
than the finer leaf Korean and "English" box IMO, tho' coarser in
appearance.

Your friend is too late with his water - and if his soil is clay and
doesn't drain really well, his watering every 3rd day could be too
much.  He needs to stop watering and start digging around near the
root balls to see what condition the soil is in 6" or 8" below
grade...If it is dry that far down, then deep watering once a week; 
if it's soggy...well....

His best bet is to remove all dead foliage and dead plants - trash
them - and if what's left isn't too horrible looking, see if it won't
come back.  Once they turn yellow, however, that's really all she
wrote unless there are still green, healthy sections on the
shrub...those could recover, given the right cultural conditions. 
Feeding will NOT help and may make matters worse.

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@hort.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
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----------
> From: gardenqueen@academicplanet.com
> 
> Is there some kind of disease that wastes boxwoods?  All
turning
> yellow,
> then brown all one after the other? I don't grow them as they are
slightly
> ho-hum
> to my taste, but  friend has some (8) that have croaked one after
the other.
> He's
> watering about every third day, so I doubt it's a water issue, also
has a few
> unaffected
> on the other side of the house.  I'm stumped, anyone have any ideas
on this??
> TIA!

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