Ornamental Box turning yellow.

I can sympathise gillybob - my 15 year old bamboo is just the same (12 year old box in pots looking green and healthy though) I googled the problem and am still no wiser. Maybe some plants just go into terminal decline after a certain time - eye watering cost of replacing them is upsetting to say the least. Someone mentioned stress to me - not the emotional sort, the weird weather

Sorry I can't offer more help.

Thanks Sel I too have googled and ended up none the wiser. What I can't understand is how both of them are effected at the same time which keeps bringing me back to something I have/haven't done, environmental changes and/or disease. Rather than simply old age as suggested on the various websites I have visited. Surely 10 years is not old for Box. My grandparents had some fantastic specimens for as long as I could remember (certainly 30 years or more). I had a fantastic bamboo in my last house and it turned out that whilst the soil on the top was relatively dry the ground underneath was waterlogged and the plant was rotting from the roots up. We did try and move it but sadly it was too late.
You are right about the cost of replacement as I saw some of a similar size in a garden centre for over £100 each. Yikes !

My inlaws had an evergreen plant in a tub either side of their path. i think they were possible small larches. One of them started to go yellow, then brown, then died off completely. The culprit turned out to be their dog, who cocked his leg against that one.

My first thought would be that they need planting in the ground rather than in a pot even if the pots are huge, but they may have got a fungal disease or something. Are they in bought compost or garden earth? Could they have succumbed to too much salt air?

I don't have a dog Elegran so can't be that. There doesn't appear to be any sign of fungal disease either Bags although you are right about the salty air and this year has been particularly windy on the coast. They are in good quality compost (half home made and half from garden centre) and have been really healthy up until very recently. It is as though the leaves are just turning yellow one by one. Perhaps they have reached their limit with the pot (although they still have plenty of room) or maybe (like me) they are just stressed out.

It doesn't sound like Box blight, gillybob so if you don't think the compost needs changing I would try a foliar feed which you dilute and spray on to the whole plant.

It seems to be a common problem at the moment gillybob I have had a very large hanging basket full of greenary and it has lived outside for the past 4 years with no problems but this year it has given up the will to live and has died on me,not even the smallest green shoot can be seen or saved, I am wondering also if the very bad weather and us living right in front of the River has had something to do with much more salt being in the air.

I am thinking it is the weather,my 2 box balls are the same, the fresh young growth would have been affected by the cold wind and frost. Let's hope they recover.

I will definitely try a feed merlotgran perhaps they are lacking in some nutrients. Thanks.

I think the weather seems to have affected so much this year glammanana and the winds have been particularly harsh in the NE.

It seems to be all the new growth on mine too shysal only a few weeks ago the flowers were forming and it was lush and green. Not much I can do if it is the weather though is there? Just cross fingers I guess.

New shoots would be more vulnerable than older growth. When we had an almighty storm here that blew salt spray over all the coastal trees, they all went brown because it happened in May when tender new leaves were just forming. They stayed brown all year but the next spring the trees revived. Hope you manage to revive the plants, gillybob.

I think you are right Bags I have just got in from work. Popped into the garden for a few minutes and had exactly the same thought . It dies appear to be all the new (tender) growth that has been affected. Beautiful sunny day today but the wind is still icy cold and it is May for goodness sake, poor plants don't stand a chance do they?

I have a sunflower on my kitchen windowsill belonging to granddaughter number 2 who's reception class are having a sunflower race. It is huge and beginning to resemble a triffid. If don't get it outside soon it will meet me on my way in the front door.