Shabby mystery privets

Hi all,
I posted years ago about my row of privet and got helpful advice, and now I'm posting again in the hope of more!
Parts of the privet are brill, all green, grows well, sticks around in winter.
Other parts are a bit shabby. Often yellow, leaf fall in winter, pathetic growth.
I did a bunch of fertilising, so I can't imagine that's the issue so I imagine it's water.
I'm in heavy clay. My lawn is covered in worm casts in the winter so I imagine it's water logged down there. I've done a bunch of internetting but there seems to be no clear consensus over what might be causing this kind of thing.
Here's some questions:

1. If it's water logging why don't the privets perk up in the summer? (the pictures are taken this week)
2. Is there anything I can practically do about it? I'm not going to be digging any ditches or channels in case anyone wants to suggest that!
3. From the pictures am I missing something? E.g. "it's definitely frosty mealy worm infection that can be treated with xzy"

Many thanks,

Oliver

 

Is the dodgy part the same part that was cut down for the skip arrival?

 

Hi Tidemark. No, the opposite.
The bit cut down for the skip has grown back all dark green and happy. Neighbouring bits that weren't cut down are all sad and yellow.
Other neighbouring bits that were cut down haven't recovered.
Intereestingly, all the bare root ball young privet plants I planted in 2023 to fill gaps have done ok, with some growing nicely and some just seeming to stay put but stay green.

Kind regards,

Olle

 

Hi

I grow golden privet and you have the green variety and the gold with the golden variety I have to cut out any green growth that it want to revert to . I also have very yellow branches that don’t contain any chlorophyll, and easily scotch in the sun.

personally I don’t think it has a disease problem I think it’s a simple you have green variety and a golden variety , green will be more vigorous as it makes its own food from the sun , with the golden leaf it will have a small amount of green running down the middle of the leaf

I think yours has gone back to original green but with a mix of golden branches intertwined.

most privets in a bad winter will lose some or all leaves and the golden variety are more prone to this ..privets are hungry plants , do you feed ? A general purpose shrub feed in late March spread under the plants and before you do that give it a good take out and remove all the old leaves etc

any hedge of one variety ie privet taken from cuttings need to be taken from the one stock plant this will give a better overall look and a very uniformed look , where most go wrong it they get plants from several nurseries.
Hope that helps a little

Spruce

 

This may be helpful

 

I also wondered if some of the plants were the gold variety. Around here it often looks a bit sickly - I think maybe it's less robust than the green form. And people do plant both together in a mixed hedge - often alternating them to start with, but of course they soon grow into and through each other. Goodness knows why, just green looks better. To my eye the gold one looks better as a specimen shrub than in a hedge.

 

Thank you all for the replies.
I'm starting to think the bad bits are golden privet, that was a good suggestion. I currently plan to plant some green near the gold and then watch as it slowly takes over/replaces the gold. The gold isn't really filling out very nicely so it's gotta go!