laurel bush dieing?

Hi there, my first post and not a happy one.

I have a nice big laurel hedge in the garden. Recently I noticed some of the leaves were starting to curl up and had a white substance on them. Now it has spread to virtually the whole hedge and brown spots and holes have appeared on the leaves.

What is this and what would the best readily available treatment be? I would prefer not to be spraying anything to toxic. Are there any fungicides (assuming it is a fungus) that I can apply via plugs or to a cut branch for example?

If I do nothing, is the hedge likely to survive?

 

Hi,

Laurel hates cold winds and ours has lots of burnt edges like this.

[ 16. June 2007, 04:11 PM: Message edited by: Johnny ]

 

Powdery mildew on laurel Powdery mildew on laurel

 

It recovered quite well. I put sulphur on it for a while, but watering during dry periods seemed to do the trick as I was in East Anglia where it was very dry, and the dense leaves tended to keep the ground around dry from all but the heaviest rain.