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Every winter we get hundreds of inquiries about box hedges and topiary turning bronze and yellow.
Box or ‘Buxus Bronzing’ is a very common problem but is happily an easily fixable one.
Buxus English Box along with other box hedging varieties such as Dutch Box, Korean, Japanese and even Lonicera BoxOz tend to be affected by the freezing autumn frosts and the bright, clear and cold sunny winter days. It is a completely natural response, often occurring on young plants, less often on mature specimens.
How to treat ‘Buxus Bronzing’
Fixing this issue couldn’t be easier!
Either:
- protect your plants from the harsh cold elements. This could mean covering them, planting them under taller plants, in sheltered garden beds or behind fences and walls; or
- add dolomite lime to your soil in autumn. This product ‘sweetens’ the soil. At the same time add an all purpose fertiliser just to give the plant a bit of a nutritional boost
Buxus are generally slow growing so it may take some time for the effects of your treatment to show. But if the bronzing continues it is not a problem! Give your plants another dose of fertiliser in the spring and you’ll see beautiful new growth sprouting in no time.
If yellowing still occurs, this may be signs of another problem. Yellowing in leaves are also signs of water stress – either too much or too little water is being accessed by the plant.
For more information on Water Stress, see our advice page here.
And for more on Soil Amendments, see our advice page here!
