Holly hedge losing leaves

Carol195 · 11 February

We have a holly hedge around our garden, planted about twenty years ago. Since November there have been loads of leaves shed, some of the plants have lost 80%.

Some of the leaves dropped have brown areas but the vast majority look absolutely fine.

In the past it’s happened to four or five trees but not as bad as this and they grew back fine.

We are in Yorkshire and have had a huge amount of rain since October and we aren’t sure if this is the cause. Anyone else experiencing similar or any ideas? Thanks :-)

DaveGreig · 11 February

I live in West Fife in Scotland and the rain we’ve had is so frequent it’s starting to get me down. It doesn’t seem to be bothering my Holly though. It’s an Ilex Gold King and it’s in what’s probably the soggiest bit of the garden.

There’s a disease called Holly Leaf Blight you may want to have a look at.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/disease/holly-leaf-blight

Carol195 · 11 February

Thank you for replying.

The leaf loss on the majority of the plants goes from the bottom up to around 6/7ft, only a few leaves have brown patches, the rest I’ve raked up are still healthy looking, weird as it sounds.
They are silver variegated and around nine feet tall, I’m really hoping that they will be ok, there are loads of birds that nest in the hedge.
I’ve had a look at the link and I’ll do some research on holly blight.

Our garden is on a corner and the worse affected areas are on the road side, I’d wondered if it might have been stress from all the rain and the salt from the roads being gritted 🤷‍♀️
And I’m with you, totally fed up of the rain.
Thanks again 😊

Holly hedge losing leaves

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