Box blight

Does anyone have any experience in dealing with this? Some horrible fungus has eaten away at our decades old topiary bush. I was watching gardeners world and they were saying the only thing that works is to cut it to the root!

I was hoping there may be a fungal spray or something less drastic.

I cut back a whole swathe of it at the weekend. Still looks nice in a Mediterranean sort of way but would probably need a gardener to cut it right down as the original branches are now as thick as a small tree.

Re: Box blight

Don't give up all hope Annie, because apparently it doesn't kill the roots of the plants.
Have a look at this from the RHS:


https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=96

Re: Box blight

Thanks Mups I'm so sad about this because it was a mature hedge cut into a lovely globe with luxuriant foliage each year. I thought it had just suffered because of a lack of water during the heatwave, but it is covered in spores.

Goodness knows how to cut it to the roots as the boughs are so thick and even the branches were really tough.

It has certainly been a challenging year for the garden! I hope yours is back to it's former glory, or at least some Autumn colours.

Re: Box blight

Monty Don has a lot of experience of this, worth having a look on his website or twitter, as sadly his box has been badly damaged and he's replacing at the moment.

Re: Box blight

I had two box plants die from it this year. They were both in containers and one of them was around 20 years old. I couldn't save them unfortunately but the other three are still with us although not as nice as they used to be. It is such a shame that we are experiencing this and it has had quite an affect on some of the formal gardens.

Re: Box blight

Hi Anne , box blight has been prevalent around here.
Monty Don produced a video on how to deal with it.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-t...ight-part-one/

Two years ago my son planted lots of low box hedges segmenting the lawns in his new house, we live not far as the crow flies from Monty and are hoping the hedges survive. So far they look ok.

Re: Box blight

I had a 10 metre box hedge...it got the virus and nothing I tried helped, so I just ha to dig it up, roots and all. I had it for years, it was sudden and quick, sorry I cant help.

Re: Box blight

Thanks all.

It's so sad that so many hardy plants are falling to this nasty disease.

Re: Box blight

I was so surprised at the speed which the virus went through my little hedge...other than an occasional trim I didn’t pay much notice of it, one week it was green then boom! Brown leaves on the soil.