This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Escallonia blight crisis!
ianjones1379
Posts: 2
Hello forum, new poster here.
To cut a long story short we've been trying to grow a long escallonia hedge since we bought our house in 2011, as this will double the size of our garden. It has to be a hedge because planning permission has been denied to a previous owner for a fence (it's like extra side garden on an open plan estate that is bigger than the actual garden).
Although we're on the South Coast near the sea, supposedly perfect for escallonia, it didn't exactly thrive from the start in our rubbly soil and we considered pulling it out and replacing it with laurel.
This would have cost £400 - £500 or so to get enough knee high laurel bushes and we just didn't have it so we persevered and all was relatively well until in late 2015 when it, alongside every other escallonia in the county came down with blight.
In 2016 and 2017 it looked like with pruning, Rose Clear, and TLC that it could be nursed back to health.
But 2018 is escallonia Armageddon around here. Our hedge is looking slightly better than the local ones that haven't been treated, which are basically just sticks now. But I realise this will never be the living fence we need, even if we can keep it alive.
We are rather heartbroken. 7 years on we are back to square one and no closer to being able to extend our garden. We still can't afford to replace with anything other than small hedges and hope they grow. It's so frustrating because if this blimming hedge wasn't being eaten alive by leaf spot it would be high enough and thick enough.
Does anyone know of a miracle cure? As every hedge I have seen is blighted I assume the fungus is airborne and there is no way to stop reinfection.
Alternatively, someone suggested that if we plant red robin in the gaps it might grow up through the escallonia and fill it out, but will the soil support both of them?
To cut a long story short we've been trying to grow a long escallonia hedge since we bought our house in 2011, as this will double the size of our garden. It has to be a hedge because planning permission has been denied to a previous owner for a fence (it's like extra side garden on an open plan estate that is bigger than the actual garden).
Although we're on the South Coast near the sea, supposedly perfect for escallonia, it didn't exactly thrive from the start in our rubbly soil and we considered pulling it out and replacing it with laurel.
This would have cost £400 - £500 or so to get enough knee high laurel bushes and we just didn't have it so we persevered and all was relatively well until in late 2015 when it, alongside every other escallonia in the county came down with blight.
In 2016 and 2017 it looked like with pruning, Rose Clear, and TLC that it could be nursed back to health.
But 2018 is escallonia Armageddon around here. Our hedge is looking slightly better than the local ones that haven't been treated, which are basically just sticks now. But I realise this will never be the living fence we need, even if we can keep it alive.
We are rather heartbroken. 7 years on we are back to square one and no closer to being able to extend our garden. We still can't afford to replace with anything other than small hedges and hope they grow. It's so frustrating because if this blimming hedge wasn't being eaten alive by leaf spot it would be high enough and thick enough.
Does anyone know of a miracle cure? As every hedge I have seen is blighted I assume the fungus is airborne and there is no way to stop reinfection.
Alternatively, someone suggested that if we plant red robin in the gaps it might grow up through the escallonia and fill it out, but will the soil support both of them?
0
Posts
i was wondering did you ever resolve this or what did you end up doing? I have a large Escallonia that has been ravaged with leaf spot this year....
conor
You could try spraying, but personally think if it returns again and is an ongoing problem it is the wrong plant for the spot.
Shame because the bees love them and E. iveyi is scented. I miss them.
The constant cycle of pruning back and rejuvenating adds more stress and the shrubs are always on constant catch up. Normally, you should prune out the affected leaves/branches and keep raking out any fallen leaves around the base. Try to mulch to keep the roots cool and moist lowering the stress, but if you are growing it as a hedge, I think is not worth it. Find a better plant for a hedge.
If this is just one or two shrubs in the garden, then try that, but there is no guarantee the shrubs would be free of the issue.
To be fair I was very half hearted in the spraying and deleafing last year, but I just don't have time to do this for an entire border hedge for such modest results.
I have cut them back quite aggressively this time and hopefully that will make them a bit denser in the spring; but every bush in South East England appears to have it.
Because of planning permission we aren't allowed to put up a hedge and the escallonia is clearly no solution now so thinking about what to do.
The ones I saw up in Devon appear to be OK still, so whether it just hasn't reached there (yet) or if they are a different type I don't know.