County Antrim, United Kingdom

We have a six year old griselinia hedge which has always flourished. This year I noticed individual plants within the hedge starting to die off, At first I put it down to the result of the winter frosts but now it is evidently spreading to other plants. I was able to easily scrape the bark off the affected limbs and noiced that the surface under the bark was black. Have started to cut back the portions which are dead down to the new growth which has started to come up. Is this some sort of fungus infection spreading and what on earth can I use to try and stop it's progress through the whole hedge?

• 16 Aug, 2010