Is our hedge dead/diseased?

[maldivemoment]

Will post a picture in the morning but just looking for some general advice. We have privet hedges all round our property. It’s a very exposed garden(west coast Scotland)so the hedges take a serious battering from the wind.
The hedges have been here for decades. Whoever planted them, planted them VERY close to the wall. Will this inhibit their growth/condition?
some of the hedges are now very sparse and quite a lot of the branches are dead; no growth & they very easily break off. There seems to be some growth near the top/surface of the hedge but very little/none further down.
I’m now wondering if the hedge is in fact dying! Do hedges die??? I’m so clueless! Or diseased maybe?
If this is the case, how do I deal with it?

Any general advice gratefully received!

Thank you

We lost our hedge to box moth, little bastards, they’ve killed every hedge on the estate.

I removed it and have replanted with a mixed border.

your conditions don’t sound ideal but it’s been there for years so more likely a disease

@Billybagpuss
Thank you (off to google ‘box moth’)

Box moth won't trouble privet.

Try a good hard prune, then regular trims. Privet is only green on the 'outside layer' and benefits from a good haircut.

Thank you @NoBinturongsHereMate

Is now a good time to prune? Should I lop off the dead stuff or just go at it with hedge trimmers? (clueless!)

You say it's very old, and a privet hedge will have a lifespan. It isn't growing in ideal conditions so that would shorten its life. They are pretty tough but being close to a wall means it may not get a lot of water or light (depends on height and aspect of wall).

It may just be ailing so try cutting it back. Have you really never cut it at all - how tall is it?! We have a privet hedge which is 10 feet tall and it would be even taller if we didn't cut it once a year. We use hedgecutters. The best time to cut it is late summer (check first to make sure no birds are nesting in it) but in your circumstances I'd probably do it in the next few weeks. At the very least you can tidy it up by removing all the dead wood. You can cut back pretty hard and (assuming it's not in its death throes) it will be fine. The resident before us cut our hedge back to about 4 feet high and it regrew.

Thank you @Bestinshow22

Since we moved in (2 years ago) we’ve trimmed the hedge a couple of times a year. It’s about 5/6 foot tall.

we’ve been doing a bit of ground maintenance recently so it’s only now come to our attention how dreadful it’s looking. Not helped by it being very bare over winter.

Next question; should I trim it right back from the top? With the hedge trimmers?
or should I remove some branches lower down? As it prune them right back, say, half way down?

Thanks again. 👍🏻

This might be a daft question, but are you sure it's privet? Privet wouldn't necessarily be bare over winter, it keeps it's leaves. Box blight has run rampant the past couple of years, as pp mentioned.

It would be very rare to have a box hedge 6 feet tall. They are slow growers.

OP - shrubs and hedges will not sprout strong new growth from lower down and fill out if you just trim the tops. Nature's way is that all the growth hormones rise to the top and outermost branches. If you want to regenerate (or see whether it is indeed worth saving), you are going to have to bite the bullet and cut it back hard. I would suggest reducing by at least half, so below a metre. 18 inches if you are feeling really brave. Then go through what's left and remove anything which is obviously dead.

If you can post a close-up photo of some leaves, we can see if it is privet or not before you give it a chop.

Same here. I ripped the hedge out myself last autumn...was pretty back breaking but looks so much better than the dead hedge we had. Unfortunately once the box moths/box blight takes hold there isn't much that can be done to recover it

I had a thread in here last year as my old established hedge was pretty much dead from box tree caterpillars. Was recommended this from Amazon. It saved the hedge and is much healthier now. Will retreat in April.

amzn.eu/d/1ZyQ92o

Thank you all. This is all really helpful.

Some pictures…

Forgot to say you use one of these type things to spray the hedge with the treatment.

amzn.eu/d/8wyi8WN

This was part of my hedge before treatment and now it's completely green and growing again.

We had something called Honey Fungus that killed part of our privet hedge. If it's that you have to remove the diseased hedged plus 1m healthy on each side or it will kill the whole thing. We had to replace the diseased bit with a fence.

Glad it worked on your box hedge, but would be a complete waste of money on privet.

I suspect the box caterpillars have moved in. There is solution you can apply monthly to keep them under control though we plan to rip ours up, it's pretty high maintenance

Once again, box caterpillars eat box. Clue's in the name. Privet is not box.

There's plenty of juice left in that. Give it a hard prune and it'll fill out. If you want to maintain some privacy phase your work - hard prune alternate individuals this year, and do the ones you've left next year. Privet will take a good cut - I've taken out ones bigger than that to less that a foot and they've bounced back.

It doesn't really look like privet. Could it be escallonia?

Cut out all the deadwood then cut around 1/4 - 1/3 of the stems back to 30cm or so above ground.

You'll get new growth this year from these lower stems, Keep pinching out the tips of the new growth every 5 leaves or so and it will branch more (like it has towards the top from regular clipping).

In a year or so you can cut some of the other stems back.

To me that does look like privet. It doesn't look at all well. Cut it back hard and see what happens.

Thank you one & all. I’m heading out into the garden with the secateurs/loppers, etc tomorrow.
wish me luck…😬

It would really help to have a close up of the leaves

Looks like privet, can bounce back from a brutal pruning if you give it a couple of years.

Nothing wrong with it, just needs a hard pruning down to about half its current height. Do that first, then remove any leftover dead branches and weeds & whatnot at the base. Sprinkle a load of growmore all the way along it, then leave alone. At this time of year, you could see the beginnings of new growth in about 3 weeks.

Can't tell from the photos but probably privet, or possibly escallonia, which is often used as hedging in exposed coastal areas. Doesn't look like box though.