Hedging

 Don't know if any can explain a problem I've had with my hedging
I am not a gardening expert by any means so I'll first of all describe the
hedge I have, it is a small green leafed and sometimes has little pink
flowers and a fragrant smell. The problem I have is although the hedges (I
have three) have been growing happily for 30 years or more over the last
three winters they have lost their leaves and looked dead only to come back
to life again in springtime and looking healthy again. Now if they had
always done this I wouldn't worry but they always used to keep their leaves
all year round.
Is this a problem connected to the 'global warming' thing or is it old age
creeping on (the hedge not me!).
When it first happened I was all for chopping down and replacing but the
fact it resurrects itself has saved it so far
Sorry about the vague description I'll photograph and post if it helps.

H

 

Try looking up Escallonia to see if it's familiar.  If it is that and
depending on where you live it may be losing its leaves because of
recent cold winters.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

 

If it is escallonia, I'd have thought that the leaf loss is more down
to age than weather. They're tough things. I've got some growing from
cuttings taken the year before last, currently in 10 inch pots. These
were left outdoors all through the winter (in 8 inch pots) and are
happily about three feet tall and spreading ready for planting later.

But after 30 years the plants want to be big and I'd guess at about
8-10 feet tall with a lot of "dead" in the middle unless they've been
regularly chopped back and, importantly, fed after that chopping.

So if they haven't been kept in check, a gradual hard chop won't go
amiss. Escallonia will regrow quite rapidly, just deal with it in
stages, don't chop all at once. If it has been kept in check, give it
a good feed and keep feeding it through the summer with something like
blood, fish and bone and some liquid tomato food (yep, it works). With
luck, it'll be built up ready to face next winter.

But if it isn't escallonia, get back to us.

 

Jake, I notice you say that they're tough and I'm certainly aware that
they tolerate salt winds pretty well, for example.  But my
understanding is that they're not totally bone hardy in locations with
severe or prolonged cold.  Have you found that to be otherwise?  My
gardening has been done in the CIs and south Devon, with only a brief
foray in Surrey for a couple of years, so I have no experience of
gardening in parts of Britain where the winters are more brutal than we
*usually* get here.  The ones we have here came through some nasty cold
spells but those weren't as prolonged as in other parts of the country.
However, as you say, these may just have come to the end of their
natural lives.  Nothing lasts forever!  We lost some 'hardy' 2' tall
Pittosporums outside in pots, ready for sale whereas a P. tobira in the
garden but in the shelter of other shrubs, died back in one branch but
otherwise survived.  In some respects, last winter seems to have been a
really peculiar one!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

 


Try looking up Escallonia to see if it's familiar.  If it is that and
depending on where you live it may be losing its leaves because of
recent cold winters.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

Yes, it does appear to be Escallonia and I've always kept them at around 5'
in height and trimmed a couple of times a year. Thank you very much for the
advice I will try the suggestions and hope for the best! It just seemed
strange that they evolved from evergreen to deciduous over 3 years and are
now looking fine again.
We live in the deep south of England so our winters are probably as good as
you're going to get in this country
I think one of the hedges must be a different variety of  Escallonia as it
has a much stronger scent and the leaves feel quite 'sticky', more so than
the other two, and this one doesn't die off to the same extent.

Thanks again