Hi all, I have successfully grown a nice little topiary garden with buxus (all planted in the ground, treated for blight every so often as a preventative, all green and full and lovely).
I bought two Thuja Smaargaard spirals to have at either side of my front door, they were lovely, bushy and green when they arrived a year ago, but I seem to have killed them.
They are brown, dropping leaves, thing, straggly, and basically look dead.
I have tried feeding them, not feeding them, watering them, not watering them etc - I am out of ideas and think I need to replace them.
I can't see any parasites on them, they just look dead.
The location is partial sun and partial shade.
The pots are large deep wooden planters on legs, when I potted them I mixed in grit to aid drainage, and made sure the planters had many holes drilled into the bottom.
So.
I'm now looking at either:
More buxus/boxwood spirals
Ilex crenata (Japanese holly) spirals
Leylandii spirals (various kinds including Castlewellan Gold or Cupressus which is a darker green)
By far the Leylandii is cheaper for a very large specimen, but I'm anxious it will do the same as the Thuja and go brown.
The Ilex holly spirals are more expensive and smaller, but I know they are immune to box blight.
The Buxus are extremely expensive for a large specimen, it would be a costly mistake of about £500 to get this wrong again.
What would you recommend? And how do I go about the planting/care/feeding etc.
Thanks all for any advice!