A Cure For Box Blight

Is there, after all, a cure for box blight? The story is that a year ago the lovely mature box hedging in our kitchen garden was struck with box blight. We were in the middle of removing it when a chance conversation with Margaret Robinson at the Mammoth Onion gave me a ray of hope. She said that one possible solution was to cut the plant right down to the ground and let it regenerate. ​

It might take a year or two, she said, but the new growth would be healthy. And so that’s what we did, a little late as most of the hedging had already been dug out. Now, 12 months later, just as Mrs Robinson predicted, there’s lots of healthy new growth. Is this, then, a cure for box blight? I’m not so sure, the problem being that some of the plants aren’t showing any signs of re-growth. It may be a case of kill or cure.